Associate Professor of Law · Capital University Law School

Roxana Vatanparast

Law, technology, and the infrastructures of global governance.

I am a legal scholar working at the intersections of international law, technology, and infrastructure. My research examines how communications systems, computational power, and digital infrastructures are intertwined with sovereignty, political economy, and global legal ordering.

Cable Empires
The Co-Production of Infrastructure, Technology, and International Law
Roxana Vatanparast
Current Book Project

Cable Empires

A history and theory of the relationship between communications infrastructure, empire, and international law. From submarine telegraph cables to the fiber-optic systems underpinning today's digital economy, the book traces how technological systems and legal order were co-produced across empires, markets, and states.

Cambridge University Press · Forthcoming

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Research

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Digital Infrastructure & International Law

Undersea cables, data centers, and the legal regimes governing the physical internet.

Data Governance & Sovereignty

Jurisdiction, sovereignty, and the elastic boundaries of the digital economy.

Technology, Power & Global Governance

The rising power of technology firms, and how digital systems enable new forms of governance and global ordering.

Recent & Forthcoming

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Forthcoming 2027
Article · Invited Symposium
Allocating Computational Power: Experimental Regulation and the Governance of AI Futures
Invited article in symposium
Forthcoming 2026
Book Chapter
Algorithmic Environmentality: Data Infrastructures in Global Environmental Governance
In Global Governance by Data: Infrastructures of Algorithmic Rule (Cambridge University Press)
SSRN →
2026
Guest-Edited Special Issue
When Renewal Repeats? International Lawmaking in a Digital Era
Computer Law and Security Review (peer-reviewed)
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