Remembering Joel Reidenberg

Joel Reidenberg, a pioneer in information law, died recently after a heroic 2-year battle with leukemia. I, along with the Fordham family and information law scholars around the world, will miss him dearly.

Lex Informatica stands as one of his most enduring works. There, he showed that tech developers are as important to protecting legal norms as conventional legal tools. With Lawrence Lessig, he saw that system designs compete with and sometimes supplant government regulation. His writing helped to shape the way many of us think about the governance of information flows—a generative term that he used to explain the ways in which governments and private actors control access to data.

Joel was a thoughtful, resourceful, and generous man. I am just glad I told him often that I was indebted to him for my hire at Fordham, and for helping me discover my own scholarly passion.

My heart is broken for his family, but especially Pascale who Joel adored and always praised. She was by his side at practically every stage of his heroic battle these past couple of years. 

Read Fordham Law School's statement about Professor Reidenberg's legacy.