Dr Edina Harbinja joined Birmingham Law School in June 2025 as an Associate Professor in Law, having previously worked at Aston University and the University of Hertfordshire. Her research focuses on the intersection of law, technology, and society, with particular expertise in digital privacy, postmortem digital rights, and the regulation of emerging technologies. She explores complex legal questions surrounding digital legacy and digital remains, including how personal data and digital assets are managed after death, as well as the broader implications of AI, platform governance, and digital property rights.

Edina began her academic journey at the University of Sarajevo, where she earned her LLB degree, building a solid legal foundation rooted in civil law traditions. She was awarded the prestigious FCO Chevening Scholarship to pursue an LLM in IT and Telecommunications Law at the University of Strathclyde, graduating with distinction. Driven by her growing interest in digital legal challenges, she continued at Strathclyde to complete a PhD focusing on the legal aspects of the transmission of digital assets on death—an emerging and increasingly vital area of law as technology evolves.

Her career blends rigorous academic research with impactful public engagement and policy influence. Dr Harbinja has contributed to legislative debates and judicial cases in the UK, US, EU and Australia, helping to shape the development of legal frameworks in online safety and digital succession. Internationally recognised as a leading expert in postmortem privacy, she has been invited to present at conferences and universities across Europe, the Americas, and beyond.

Beyond research, Edina is deeply involved in the academic and professional communities. She serves on the Advisory Council of the Open Rights Group, a leading digital rights advocacy organisation, and on the Executive Committee of the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association (BILETA). She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, reflecting her commitment to excellence in teaching and educational leadership. Complementing her academic roles, she holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and Management from the University of Hertfordshire.

As a public-facing scholar, Edina regularly contributes expert commentary and articles to prominent media outlets, including the BBC, Thomson Reuters, The Guardian, The Conversation, and Nature Outlook. Her work effectively translates complex legal and technological issues into accessible insights for policymakers, legal professionals, and the wider public worldwide.

Edina co-edits the Future Law book series published by Edinburgh University Press, which explores cutting-edge topics at the intersection of law and technology. She is deputy editor of the Computer Law and Security Review, a leading journal in technology law and policy, and she reviews extensively for academic journals and research funding bodies.

Currently, her research agenda encompasses projects on AI regulation, digital inheritance, and the ethical governance of digital remains. Through interdisciplinary approaches and socio-legal methods, Dr Harbinja advances understanding of how law can respond effectively to rapid technological change while safeguarding fundamental human rights, autonomy, freedom and dignity.

Dr Edina Harbinja’s research focuses on the legal, regulatory, and social implications of emerging digital technologies, with particular expertise in post-mortem privacy and digital legacy. Her foundational work, including her 2022 monograph Digital Death, Digital Assets, and Post-Mortem Privacy (Edinburgh University Press), translated to Romanian, is widely regarded as pioneering and interdisciplinary, bridging law, ethics, computer science, and the social sciences. Her research methodology is notable for combining doctrinal, theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented approaches to address rapidly evolving challenges at the intersection of law and digital innovation.

Outputs 

Her scholarly output includes peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters addressing technology regulation, data protection, AI ethics, digital property, and online safety. Noteworthy publications include ‘Governing Ghostbots’ (2023) in Computer Law and Security Review, which examines AI-driven chatbots of deceased individuals. This article initiates her in-depth exploration of the legal and ethical implications of digital immortality services, or ‘deathtech’, a topic she is expanding into a monograph and a larger research project. Her journal article investigating UK residents’ perceptions of digital remains and postmortem privacy through empirical research was honoured with the Taylor and Francis Best Paper Award at the 2024 BILETA Annual Conference.

Projects 

Recent projects include co-leading an extensive Leverhulme Trust-funded study on privacy law and digital remains, involving empirical research with legal professionals and the public. She co-leads the European Law Institute project on drafting model EU rules for digital inheritance and succession, a high-impact initiative informing future legislative frameworks on digital assets after death.

From 2020 to 2023, Dr Harbinja served as Co-Investigator on the ESRC-IRC funded Cross-border UK-Ireland Data Protection Network (Cross-DPN), a multi-stakeholder network promoting dialogue on data protection post-Brexit. She was the Principal Investigator for the 2020 Modern Law Review seminar series, titled "Emerging Technologies, Personality Laws and the Dead" (held in 2021).

Academic service, engagement and impact 

Edina serves as deputy editor of Computer Law and Security Review, a leading technology law journal. She is a member of the ESRC Peer Review College, supporting rigorous research funding decisions nationally. Edina also co-edits the Future Law book series with Edinburgh University Press.

She sits on the Executive Committee and leads the consultation response stream of the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association (BILETA). She actively advises the Open Rights Group and jas contributed annually as the UK analyst for Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net report. She is an honorary fellow at the Centre for Death and Society and a regular contributor to the Death Online Research Network, which investigates death and technology across social sciences and humanities. In 2025, she became a founding member of the Birmingham Law Society Law Tech Committee, further strengthening her engagement with legal technology innovation.

Dr Harbinja’s research has significantly influenced public policy and law reform internationally. She has provided expert testimony to multiple UK parliamentary committees on the Online Safety Bill, encryption, online harms, digital succession, and contributed to legislative consultations in the UK, US, and Australia.

Dr Harbinja frequently presents at international conferences and delivers keynote lectures globally. Her public engagement spans major media outlets including the BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, Nature Outlook, and The Conversation.

She supervises doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, fostering the next generation of scholars in technology law and regulation.

• PhD in Law, University of Strathclyde – ‘Legal Aspects of Transmission of Digital Assets on Death’
• LLM in IT and Telecommunications Law (with Distinction), University of Strathclyde
• LLB, University of Sarajevo (honours)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and Management, University of Hertfordshire
• Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
• Bar Exam, Ministry of Justice, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina