How far can you go? Shoehorning Digital Rights into Existing Human Rights Treaties

Abstract This article engages with the theory and practice of adapting, by way of dynamic interpretation, existing IHRL treaties with a view to including under their scope of coverage digital human rights. A key question investigated, in this regard, is whether there are meaningful normative limits on the elasticity of existing IHRL treaties. A related question is whether an extra-broad construction of existing IHRL treaty provisions, reading into them a large number of diverse human rights protections (‘mega-human rights’), is legitimate and practical. Part One discusses the question of elasticity of IHRL treaties, including relevant doctrinal and policy considerations. Part Two examines the debate arising with regard to digital rights and their relationship to existing IHRL treaties. I look specifically, in this regard, at three candidate digital human rights – internet access, digital self-determination and algorithmic fairness and transparency, and evaluate efforts to incorporate them within existing IHRL treaties.