Raffaela Kunz

Raffaela is a Fellow in the “Knowledge & Society” Lab. She is a lecturer at the University of Saarbrücken and a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, where she leads the research project “Scientific Blogs as Infrastructure for Digital Publishing and Academic Communication: Expanding the Model Project ‘Völkerrechtsblog'”.

Her research explores the current Open Science transformation from the perspective of public law and fundamental rights. The pandemic, showcasing the speed at which scientific progress is possible if researchers around the world collaborate openly, has given the Open Science movement a new boost. Yet, from the perspective of fundamental rights, the current developments in the science system also reinforce potentially problematic tendencies, such as the metrification and platformization of science, and come with new and critical challenges. By way of example, the extent to which data tracking is being practiced in science increasingly comes to light. Is research in the digital age gradually guided by algorithms and directed by the interests of powerful commercial actors, and how is this compatible with the ideal of free and autonomous research as guaranteed by constitutional and human rights guarantees? Which tools does public law have to offer to counter these challenges – or is the regulatory force of law increasingly sidelined by technology?

Raffaela holds a PhD from the University of Basel, Switzerland, where she currently also pursues her habilitation thesis. She has studied law at the universities of Basel and Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Völkerrechtsblog, a digital and openly accessible platform for scholarly exchange in public international law, and one of the editors of the Open Textbook in Public International Law, currently underway under the umbrella of the Germany-based initiative “OpenRewi”.