Q. What does an author?
If your paper has been accepted, most of your hard work is done before you arrive in Lausanne and we need you to respect the submissions deadlines. Authors do not present their papers, nor do they need to prepare any comments in advance. Instead, the role of the author at PLSC is to listen, contextualize, and benefit from the discussion. While authors certainly participate in their own workshop, they are not expected to respond to every comment or explain every decision they made in the paper. The workshop is ultimately for your benefit, so feel free during the discussion to ask specific questions of the participant.
Q. What does a commentator?
Commentators at PLSC have the important role leading the discussion at a paper workshop. For that, an in-deep reading of the paper is required. To begin, commentators take no more than 3-5 minutes to summarize the paper, focusing on its major arguments and contributions. Because it is assumed that the workshop participants have already read the paper, this summary acts just as a refresher. After that, commentators spend no more than 3-5 minutes reflecting on the paper and offering feedback. The authors have the choice to take a few minutes to respond to the commentator’s feedback or save that time for the broader discussion. Then, the commentators are in charge of leading discussion by keeping a queue, calling on participants when it’s their turn, and cutting people off if they speak for too long. The traditional way for participants to indicate that they would like to speak is to turn up their name card, turning it down once they have been called on.
Q. What does a participant?
As a participant, you have two responsibilities. First, be sure to read ahead of time the papers of the workshops you want to attend. Second, provide a constructive feedback to the author. The best kinds of feedback are those that will be helpful to the author as they revise their draft, invite contemplation, and generate discussions. Feedback can be comments or questions to the author, but they must be constructive and respectful.
Q. Who can participate?
The conference is primarily open to law scholars (professors, researchers, postdocs and PhD students) and practitioners (attorneys, in-house, government officials, etc.) from Europe and abroad to discuss the papers. Scholars from many disciplines (law, psychology, economics, sociology, philosophy, political science, computer science, and even math) can also participate and are welcomed.
At PLSC, participants are not just listening, but are expected to have read some paper and participate in the discussions they attend.
Q. What happens in a workshop?
At PLSC, papers are introduced by a commentator. This commentator discusses the basic contours of the paper and invites the workshop group to discuss themes and questions raised by it. The author participates in the discussion, but does not present or otherwise direct the conversation. The idea is to help the author understand how others interpret the paper, and to give advice on content and even the strategy of getting published. Workshops are both informal and friendly in nature.
Q. Do I need to submit a paper?
No. Most PLSC participants do not write a paper for PLSC and instead participate in the various paper discussions.
Q. Do I need to prepare before the conference?
Yes, conference participants will be expected to read the papers of the sessions they attend in advance to ensure high-quality discussions. Thus, please plan for sufficient preparation time in advance of the conference.
Q. What are the deadlines this year?
The deadlines for the PLSC Lausanne 2025 have not yet been set. We will inform you in due time.
Q. May I submit multiple papers?
Yes, however, for purposes of equity and because there are limited workshop slots, we may limit the acceptance to 2 papers by the same author.
Q. How do I submit my paper after my abstract has been accepted ?
You can simply send it by email at plsc@unil.ch.
Q. Can I use slides?
No, slides are not allowed. Our workshop model is based on participant conversation, not presentation.
Q. When will papers be available?
The papers will be made available to conference participants probably mid-August 2025.
Q. Where are the papers?
We circulate a link to participants by email. Shortly after the conference, we delete the papers.
Q. I’d like to report/blog/share about the conference. What is the hashtag?
Because the authors’ drafts are incomplete and ideas inchoate, we ask that you do not publicize the content of papers or discussions at PLSC. The point is to help scholars think through their work, and thus we do not blog or tweet over the content. Of course you can report/blog/tweet about the conference in general, your participation or your paper. The hashtag #PLSC2025 can be used for that.
Q. Are there conference publications?
No. There is no commitment (or opportunity) to publish.
Q. Are there other PLSCs?
Yes. PLSC Lausanne has been inspired by the Privacy Law Scholars Conference PLSC created in the United States in 2008 by Prof. Daniel J. Solove (The George Washington University Law School) and Prof Chris Jay Hoofnagle (Berkeley Law School).
Similar events have been held in Europe, for example in October 2015 in conjunction with the Amsterdam Privacy Conference (APC) and in May 2017, in conjunction with TILTing Perspectives.
PLSC Lausanne is not sanctioned nor licensed by PLSC (privacyscholars.org)
Q. Who shall I contact if I have any question?
You can email us at plsc@unil.ch.