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Our own devices : recovering human agency through the right to repair
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Florence : European University Institute, 2025
EUI; LAW; PhD Thesis
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ROSBOROUGH, Anthony Douglas, Our own devices : recovering human agency through the right to repair, Florence : European University Institute, 2025, EUI, LAW, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/94073
Abstract
This thesis investigates the emerging Right to Repair as a legal and political response to the increasing enclosure of digital and software-dependent technologies. It develops a normative framework grounded in the concept of human agency, drawing upon a range of philosophers and theorists. Repair is framed beyond a practical intervention and means to certain ends (extended product lifespan, reduced costs, increased competition) and including epistemic and political dimensions (as an end in itself). The politics of repair challenges and resists what the thesis defines as technological servitude. This is a condition in which material objects are transformed into services, and user autonomy is subordinated to centralised control by device manufacturers through a combination of software dependency, Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, contractual restrictions, and technological protection measures (TPMs). Through comparative analysis of legal and policy developments in jurisdictions including the European Union, United States, and Canada, the thesis explores how the Right to Repair is being articulated across legal, economic, and technological domains. Following an introduction to the Right to Repair, it is structured in three parts: the first theorises the concept of human agency in relation to property objects and tangible engagement with devices; the second examines the structures and histories that have enabled and created the conditions for technological servitude; the third maps the contours of the Right to Repair as it is emerging in law and practice, proposing pathways for reclaiming agency through legal reform and collective resistance. The thesis is further grounded in many practical examples from various domains, including agricultural equipment, medical devices, the automotive industry, and consumer electronics. These insights are based (in part) on the author’s observations as a Right to Repair advocate involved in policy discussions in Canada, the United States, and Europe over the past seven years. These case studies and examples expose the systemic barriers to repair in diverse sectors and contexts, illustrating the stakes of repair as a mode of restoring functional human agency and democratic participation in a contemporary life.
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Defence date: 18 November 2025
Examining Board: Prof. Peter F. Drahos (European University Institute); Prof. Nicolas Petitt (European University Institute); Prof. Joshua A.T. Fairfield (Washington & Lee University School of Law); Dr. Lachlan D. Urquhart (Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh Law School)
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Chapter 5 'A history of technological protection' and Chapter 6 'Anti-circumvention law' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as a technical report 'Technological protection measures and the law: impacts on research, education & preservation' (2024) under the project Knowledge Rights 21.
Chapter 10 'Destandarisation of property' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Technologies of servitude: understanding firmware TPMs as interests in personal property' (2022) in the journal 'Canadian journal of law and technology'.