Barbara van Schewick

Position / Title: 
Associate Professor of Law and Helen L. Crocker Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law School, Director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, and Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
Links: 
Twitter
Internet Architecture & Innovation
van Schewick's RSS Feed - Blog
Contact: 
schewick@stanford.edu
650.723.8340
Focus Areas: 
Architecture and Public Policy
Areas of Expertise: 
Network Neutrality

Barbara van Schewick is an Associate Professor of Law and Helen L. Crocker Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law School, Director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, and Associate Professor (by courtesy) of Electrical Engineering in Stanford University’s Department of Electrical Engineering, and a leading expert on network neutrality.

Van Schewick’s research on the economic, regulatory, and strategic implications of communication networks bridges law, networking and economics. 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.

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.

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.