Information Technology Law - LAWS3131
Faculty: Faculty of Law
School: Faculty of Law
Course Outline: See below
Campus: Sydney
Career: Undergraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 4
Enrolment Requirements:
Pre-requisite: Crime & Criminal Process (LAWS1021/JURD7121) & Criminal Laws (LAWS1022/JURD7122) OR Crim. Law 1 (LAWS1001/JURD7101) & Crim. Law 2 (LAWS1011/JURD7111). Co-requisite: Litigation 1 [LAWS2311/ JURD7211] OR Res. Civil Disp. (LAWS2371/JURD7271)
Excluded: JURD7331
CSS Contribution Charge: 2 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
View course information for previous years.
Description
The interaction between traditional law and modern technology plays a central role in the course. In order to analyse the impact and application of traditional legal principles in a new technological environment, the principles must be translated into the language of the technologies involved. The translation must preserve the original meaning and policy rationale. It is the aim of the course to teach, encourage and nurture such thinking. Examples of problems we shall encounter and analyse in the course include the connection between enabling technologies of cyber crime and the contours of liability of cyber criminals and their enablers; how an understanding of the Internet informs whether notice of electronic contractual terms is properly provided by a hyperlink; and determining whether an implied term of fitness for purpose can be read into a contract to download software.
A statement by Professor Lawrence Lessig captures the essence of the course: “[w]hen dealing with cyberspace, judges are to be translators; different technologies are the different languages; and the aim is to find a reading of [legal principles] that preserves [their] meaning from one world’s technology to another. This is fidelity as translation.” Lawyers who fail to understand the translation will likely pursue sub-optimal litigation strategies, face speculative recovery prospects, and may overlook effective and potentially powerful defences.
Recommended Prior Knowledge
Course Objectives
- To examine whether and to what extent computing and data communications technologies are giving rise to a distinctive new field of law (increasingly called 'cyberspace law') and to attempt to identify the subject matter, legal concepts and analytic techniques particular to such a field
- To provide a reasonably comprehensive survey of the main aspects of existing law which have arisen (or changed) because of these new technologies, or are made problematic by them
- To facilitate an understanding of the interaction between the overall legal and social contexts of cyberspace, as it gains increasing economic, cultural and social importance
Main Topics
- Introduction to the Internet and related technologies.
- Information technology patents.
- Translation.
- Electronic contracts.
- Computer and information security.
- Cyber crime: Law and enabling technologies.
Assessment
In-class final exam (60%).
Course Texts
Prescribed
Lawrence Lessig, Code and other laws of cyberspace119 (1999)
Recommended
- B. Fitzgerald et al., Internet and E-Commerce Law: Technology, Law and Policy (2d ed.)
- Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999).
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It (2008). Available at: http://futureoftheinternet.org/static/ZittrainTheFutureoftheInternet.pdf
- C.P. Pfleeger and S.L. Pfleeger, Security in Computing (4th ed 2007).
- Alana Maurushat, Disclosure of Security Vulnerabilities: Legal and Ethical issues (Springer 2013).
Study Levels
UNSW Quick Links
