Law in the Information Age 2.0 - LAWS3431
Faculty: Faculty of Law
School: Faculty of Law
Course Outline: http://www.cyberlawcentre.org/genl0231/outline2010v2.pdf
Campus: Kensington Campus
Career: Undergraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3
Enrolment Requirements:
Restricted to students enrolled in Legal Studies: Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 4055 or 3408 or 4054.
CSS Contribution Charge: 2 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
View course information for previous years.
Description
It will cover five broad areas:
1. how laws are made, changed, interpreted and enforced, with cybercrime among the examples
2. laws governing licensing, ownership and control of telecommunications, radiocommunications and broadcasting enterprises, and whether these laws are appropriate and effective to deal with new technologies and services;
3. electronic commerce and what it means for business, consumers and the community;
4. restrictions on media and online content, including classification and censorship, and regulation of content; and
5. protecting intellectual property and reputation, covering copyright, trademarks, and defamation.
The 2.0 extension of this course also focuses on issues arising from the Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 phenomena of social networking, user generated content, mass personalisation, semantic net, and “the cloud”. These are addressed in separate workshops after each of the main classes.
Convenor
David Vaile
Executive director, Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, Faculty of Law
Email: d.vaile@unsw.edu.au
Recommended Prior Knowledge
Course Objectives
- Articulate the main elements of regulatory models and legal regimes
- Understand the unique challenges posed to users, regulators, policy makers and online service providers
- Appreciate the level of technical complexity and evolving issues in communications convergence
- To be able to engage in debate on policy reform in the area
- Explain and provide better instruction to a legal advisor
- Completion of a independent research of an inter-disciplinary nature
Main Topics
- how laws are made, changed, interpreted and enforced, with cybercrime among the examples
- laws governing licensing, ownership and control of telecommunications, radiocommunications and broadcasting enterprises, and whether these laws are appropriate and effective to deal with new technologies and services;
- electronic commerce and what it means for business, consumers and the community;
- restrictions on media and online content, including classification and censorship, and regulation of content; and
- protecting intellectual property and reputation, covering copyright, trademarks, and defamation.
Assessment
Media Diary - 30%
Research paper plus annotated Bibliography - 60%
(or 30%, shorter, if doing optional online contribution)
Online contribution - 30% (optional)
Participation - 10%
Course Texts
Either:
Carvan, J Understanding the Australian Legal System, Thomson Lawbook Co, 6th ed, 2010
OR
Richard Chisholm, Garth Nettheim, Understanding Law: an introduction to the Australia's legal system, 7th ed., Sydney: LexisNexis Butterworths, 2007, 213 pp., ISBN 9780409323467
Resources
Announcements, detailed classes timetable, and further links are available at the courses' home page at www.cyberlawcentre.org/genl0231
Study Levels
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