Who owns our digital afterlife? Helping the law keep pace with society

Alongside traditional estates, we now leave behind digital remains after we die, from social media accounts and emails to AI-generated recreations of ourselves. Our digital legacies are creating new and potentially troubling questions about autonomy and dignity after death. Dr. Edina Harbinja, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Birmingham, is spearheading a pioneering initiative to modernize European law to respond to novel questions about access, inheritance and privacy. The new model laws Dr. Harbinja is creating will be the first of their kind and will set the standard for how digital succession is regulated around the world.