Vicky Breemen
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Vicky Breemen is Assistant Professor at Utrecht University’s Centre for Intellectual Property Law (CIER) and the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice. She holds a research master’s degree and a doctorate in information law, both from the University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation on the future principles of a library privilege in copyright law was awarded the Dutch Association of Information Professionals’ annual prize for best publication (Victorine van Schaickprijs KNVI). A central thread in Vicky’s research is the interplay between law, culture and technology, utilising both legal and non-legal concepts and sources. She has held fellowships from Tilburg University and the National Library of the Netherlands.
Vicky Breemen joins the Paris IAS in September-October 2025 for a group research stay as part of the CAT collaborative program, in collaboration with the researchers Andrew Bricker, Alberto Godioli, Ana Pedrazzini and Tjeerd Royaards.
Research topics
Copyright law; fundamental rights law; law, culture and technology.
Cartoons in Court: Towards a Forensic Analysis of Visual Humor
Due to its inherent ambiguity and elusiveness, humor can make it particularly difficult to draw a line between lawful and unlawful expression. This is particularly evident in the case of cartoons or other comparable forms of predominantly visual humor, such as memes, whose high degree of implicitness and condensation generates specific interpretive challenges. How can judges deal with the ambiguity of visual humor, i.e. the fact that the same cartoon or meme can be interpreted in different ways by different people? And to what extent can the author/cartoonist be considered responsible for different reasonable interpretations?
This collaborative project, ‘Cartoons in Court,’ aims to answer these questions by working organically on the following interconnected areas: interdisciplinary analysis of court decisions concerning cartoons and other forms of visual humour (particularly in cases of defamation or incitement to hatred); the study, using a corpus, of different forms of ambiguity in cartoons; a historical perspective on controversies related to cartoons; interviews with cartoonists and legal professionals, while working closely with stakeholders such as Cartoonists Rights, Cartooning for Peace and other organisations defending freedom of expression.
Key publications
J.M. Breemen, Vicky E. Breemen. "‘Slow Libraries’ and ‘Cultural AI’: Reassessing technology regulation in the context of digitised cultural heritage data", TechReg, 005, p. 81-99, forthcoming.
Vicky E. Breemen. "Digital Libraries Under EU Copyright Law – a Relationship Set in Stone?", European Papers, (8), p. 689-712, 2023.
J.M. Breemen, Vicky E. Breemen. "Imagining interdisciplinary dialogue in the European Court of Justice’s Deckmyn decision: Conceptual challenges when law and technology regulate parody", Humor, 35(3), special issue “Humor and the law: The difficulty in judging jests” edited by Brigitte Adriaensen, Andrew Bricker, Alberto Godioli & Ted Laros, p. 447-482, 2022.
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