Yaniv Benhamou

Presentation

Yaniv Benhamou (associate professor of digital law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva) is specialized in data protection, intellectual property, art law, Internet law and technologies (including Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Humanities). He has completed several research stays, including at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (2018), the Centre for Media and Communications Law (CMCL) at Melbourne Law School (2016) and the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law in Munich (2006).

Since 2015, he co-organizes with Prof. Jacques de Werra the WIPO-UNIGE Summer School on Intellectual Property, and the Digital Law Summer School. Since 2018, he has been mandated as an international expert by WIPO for copyright and museums issues, including author of the Report on Copyright Practices and Challenges of Museums, as well as for Big Data and Intellectual Property. He has also co-directed a research project on the Digitization of Museum Collections.

Since 2019, he  is in charge of several institutional missions related to the digital transformation of the University as a member of the Bureau of Digital Transformation (BTN) at the Rectorate. He is also a member of the new Digital Law Center (DLC).

Parallel to his academic activities, he is an Of Counsel in a law firm in Geneva and a member of the Commission on Innovations and Modernization of the Bar (CIMBAR). He is also active in the field of culture. In particular, he was assistant curator of the exhibition Controversies: an ethical and legal history of photography organized by the Musée de l'Elysée de Lausanne (Prix Artcurial best contemporary art book 2008), co-founded Artists Rights, pro bono legal advice to artists (i.e. volunteer lawyers for the arts in collaboration with lab-of-arts and rosabrux) and regularly teaches copyright law to museums in the framework of the legal training of AMS (Association of Swiss Museums). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Art Law and a member of the Standing Committee for Legal Affairs of ICOM International (International Council of Museums).