Barbara van Schewick is an Associate Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, an Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Electrical Engineering at Stanford’s Department of Electrical Engineering, and the Director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.
Van Schewick’s research focuses on the economic, regulatory, and strategic implications of communication networks. In particular, she explores how changes in the architecture of computer networks affect the economic environment for innovation and competition on the Internet, and how the law should react to these changes. This work has made her a leading expert on the issue of network neutrality, perhaps the Internet’s most debated policy issue, which concerns Internet users’ ability to access the content and software of their choice without interference from network providers. Her book Internet Architecture and Innovation (MIT Press 2010) is considered to be the seminal work on the science, economics and policy of network neutrality. Her papers on network neutrality have influenced regulatory debates in the United States, Canada and Europe. The Federal Communication Commission’s Open Internet Order, which was published in December 2010 and went into effect in November 2011, relied heavily on her work.
In 2007, van Schewick was one of three academics who, together with public interest groups, filed the petition that started the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality inquiry into Comcast’s blocking of BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer protocols. She has testified before the FCC in en banc hearings and official workshops. She co-authored an amicus brief – along with Professors Jack Balkin, Lawrence Lessig, and Tim Wu, among others – defending the FCC order that ordered Comcast to stop interfering with BitTorrent. In June 2011, van Schewick filed a letter with the FCC asking the Commission to open up the proceeding regarding Verizon’s blocking of tethering applications for public comment. The FCC later cited her letter in its decision to do so.
Prior to joining the Stanford Law faculty, van Schewick was a senior researcher at the Technical University Berlin, and a nonresidential fellow of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. From August 2000 to November 2001, she was that Center’s first residential fellow. Van Schewick is on the Advisory Board of Public Knowledge.
Van Schewick holds a PhD in Computer Science, an MSc in Computer Science, and a BSc in Computer Science, all summa cum laude from Technical University Berlin, the Second State Exam in Law (equivalent of Bar Exam), summa cum laude, from the Higher Regional Court Berlin and the First State Exam in Law (equivalent of J.D.), summa cum laude, from Free University Berlin.
She received the Scientific Award 2005 from the German Foundation for Law and Computer Science and the Award in Memory of Dieter Meurer 2006 from the German Association for the Use of Information Technology in Law (“EDV-Gerichtstag”) for her doctoral work. In October 2010, she received the Research Prize Technical Communication 2010 from the Alcatel-Lucent Stiftung for Communications Research for her pioneering work in the area of Internet architecture, innovation and regulation.
Photos of the author and of her book can be found here.
