Dr Marion Oswald is Associate Professor in Law at the University of Northumbria. She researches the interaction between law and digital technology and has a particular interest in the use of information and innovative technology by criminal justice bodies and the wider public sector. Marion regularly writes, speaks and advises on the legal and ethical implications of new technologies.
Marion was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list 2022 for services to digital innovation.
From July 2021 - March 2022, Marion was Specialist Adviser to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee advising the Lords Committee on its inquiry into new technologies and the application of the law: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1272/new-technologies-and-the-application-of-the-law/
From September 2021, Marion has been appointed to the independent Advisory Board of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, a government expert body focused upon the trustworthy use of data and AI.
From November 2021, Marion will be working part-time for the Turing Institute as Senior Research Associate supporting the Safe and Ethical AI Programme, focused in particular on criminal justice.
Marion is a solicitor (non-practicing), with previous experience in legal management roles within private practice, international companies and UK central government including national security. She has worked extensively in the fields of data protection, freedom of information and information technology, having advised on a number of information technology implementations, data sharing projects and statutory reforms. Marion spent 10 years at the University of Winchester where she founded and led the research and knowledge exchange centre, the Centre for Information Rights.
Marion is PI and Director of the AHRC-funded 'Observatory for the Monitoring of Data-Driven Approaches to Covid-19' (https://www.omddac.org.uk/). She chairs the West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner and West Midlands Police data ethics committee and is a member of the New Zealand Police independent advisory panel on emerging technologies. She is an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, a member of the National Statistician's Data Ethics Advisory Committee, and a Board member of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub. She was a member of the Advisory Board to the Ada Lovelace Institute Ryder Review of the Governance of Biometric Technologies.
Marion is Managing Editor of the Journal of Law, Technology and Trust, sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law, and has guest edited the European Journal of Law and Technology. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Marion's research focuses on the interaction between law and digital technology, and involves multi-disciplinary collaboration and doctrinal, empirical and conceptual methodologies. Building on her background as a practising lawyer within Government and technology companies, she has developed a particular specialism in the use of digital technologies and big data within policing and the wider public sector. She regularly writes, speaks and advises on the impacts of new technologies, and the legal, ethical and social issues raised by personal data sharing and the deployment of innovative technology in the public and private sectors, focusing upon administrative and public law and human rights issues. She has a particular interest in the use of information, Big Data and algorithms to solve public sector problems, and in the challenges to children’s best interests raised by our digital society.
Marion was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list 2022 for services to digital innovation.
From July 2021 - March 2022, Marion was Specialist Adviser to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee advising the Lords Committee on its inquiry into technologies and the application of the law: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1272/new-technologies-and-the-application-of-the-law/
From September 2021, Marion has been appointed to the independent Advisory Board of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, a government expert body focused upon the trustworthy use of data and AI.
From November 2021, Marion will be working part-time for the Turing Institute as Senior Research Associate supporting the Safe and Ethical AI Programme, focused in particular on criminal justice.
Marion is an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, Chair of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner and West Midlands Police Data Ethics Committee, a member of the National Statistician's Data Ethics Committee, a member of the New Zealand Police independent advisory panel on emerging technologies, and a Board member of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub. She was a member of the Advisory Board to the Ada Lovelace Institute Ryder Review of the Governance of Biometric Technologies. She was joint law track chair of the Association of Computing Machinery Fairness, Accountability and Transparency (ACM FAT) Conference 2020 and a member of the Council of Europe Working Group of Experts on Artificial Intelligence and Criminal Law.
Marion is PI and Director of the AHRC-funded 'Observatory for the Monitoring of Data-Driven Approaches to Covid-19' (https://www.omddac.org.uk/).
Marion is Managing Editor of the Journal of Law, Technology and Trust, sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law, and has guest edited the European Journal of Law and Technology. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
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