JJUA55239U Introduction to Digital Law

Volume 2023/2024
Content

The impact of digitization, from a legal perspective, is pervasive, inevitable and irresistible. It continuously transforms the legal relationships of various actors, people, and entities. Such transformation mainly derives either from the inherent aspects of data: its exchange, usage, and storage, or the imminent shift that digitization creates in the interpretation of legal concepts such as liability, property, autonomy, public space, and currency. It further has an intrinsic correlation with digitalization, which has an equally pervasive and vital impact on the implementation of the law. The latter also fundamentally reshapes the way legal concepts are interpreted, the contracts are drafted, and risks and liabilities are allocated. Digitization is essentially carried out through digitalization. Thus, we now look at various legal concepts through a digital lens to be able to accurately evaluate them. This course aims to provide a holistic understanding of the way these correlated concepts of digitization and digitalization are legally implemented, what the regulatory barriers and ethical concerns regarding their implementations are, and what the challenges pertaining to the allocation of risks and liabilities that may arise concerning their implementation are. This course is research-based and mainly includes examples and cases from industries in which digitization and digitalization are centrally integrated into the operation.

 

Among others, the course deals with topics such as:

  • Scope and Principles of Personal Data Processing
  • Autonomy and Automation
  • Digitization, Digitalization, and Contracts
  • Digital Property
  • Digital Financial Services and cryptocurrencies
  • Digital Public Space
  • Digital Media
  • Digital Dispute Resolution
  • Digitalization and Ethics
  • Digitalization, Autonomy and Automation in Transport Law (Autonomous ships, Remotely-Controlled Ships, Autonomous Cars)
  • Algorithmic Liability
  • Digital Twins and IP rights

 

Being an introductory course, the course does not require prior knowledge of the topic.

Learning Outcome

The course seeks to familiarize students with the understanding of black letter law and encourage students to discuss the rationale behind this particular field of law. Thus, it is focused both on theoretical and practical issues, as well as possible solutions, as they appear from legislation and relevant case law.

 

Knowledge

Students shall have knowledge of:

  • Contemporary concepts of digitization and digitalization and their correlation with the law
  • Relevant concepts of digital law as defined by law and developed by case law
  • Policy considerations underlying the various parts of digital law (i.e.: the need for regulation, for remedial action, for consumer protection)
  • Ethical and moral issues concerning various aspects of digitization and digitalization

 

Skills

In terms of skills, students shall be able to:

  • Understand general rules and principles of digital law
  • Identify and understand the different aspects and implications of digital environment and products, as well as the transformation of legal concepts due to digitization and digitalization
  • Explain the shift that digitization creates in the interpretation of the relevant legal concepts
  • Explain how digitization, from a legal perspective, continuously transforms the legal relationships of various actors, people and entities

 

Competences

In terms of competences, students shall be prepared to:

  • Evaluate legal concepts and contemporary practices from the perspective of digital law and hence, to develop a multi-layered legal evaluation of these
  • Critically reflect on current and future developments in the field of digital law
  • Present arguments for and against different available solutions in a structured and coherent manner that demonstrates a good overview of and insight into digital law, as well as the ability to make a qualified choice between these solutions
  • Evaluate the challenges pertaining to the allocation of risks and liabilities that may arise concerning the implementation of regulatory barriers and ethical concerns

Detailed literature list TBA

 

Stephen Breen, Karim Ouazzane and Preeti Patel, GDPR: Is your consent valid? Business Information Review, 2020, Vol. 37(1) 19–24

 

Handbook on European data protection law (2018 edition), 115-134

 

Michael Veale and Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius, Demystifying the Draft EU Artificial Intelligence Act (2021) 22(4) Computer Law Review International

 

Daniel Martin – Dispersing the Cloud: Reaffirming the Right to Destroy in a New Era of Digital Property, 74 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 467 (2017)


Asress Adimi Gikay, ‘ Regulating Decentralized Cryptocurrencies under Payment Services Law: Lessons from European Union Law’ (2018) 9 Case W. Res. J.L. Tech. & Internet 1.

 

Joseph Lee, Crypto-Finance, Law and RegulationGoverning an Emerging Ecosystem Routledge, 2022


Jacquelyn Burkell & all – Facebook: public space, or private space? Information, Communication and Society Journal, Volume 17, 2014, Issue 8, pp. 974-985


Jean Camp & Y.T. Chien – The Internet as public space: concepts, issues and implication in public policy, ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, Volume 30, Issue 3, September 2000, Pp 13-19.


Victoria Smith Ekstrand – News Piracy and the Hot News Doctrine. Origins in Law and Implications for the Digital Age, LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, New York, 2005, Chapter 1 ‘Introduction: The Scope of Piracy’, pp. 6-10; Chapter 5: NBA v Motorola and the New Boundaries of Hot News’ pp. 119-
153, - 28 pages

 

It is illegal to share digital textbooks with each other without permission from the copyright holder.

Minimal research skills are needed to complete some of the assignments.
The course takes the format of lectures and active class participation. Hence, whenever possible, the participation of the students is expected, encouraged and appreciated. Students are therefore required to prepare themselves by:
- deliver presentations and provide feedback to their peers,
- working on assignments (either individually or in groups, as the case may be),
- engaging in the exchange of ideas throughout the classes and other activities required.
The courses It-ret and Introduction to Digital Law are mutually exclusive. In your course of study, you can only follow and be examined in one of these courses.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Preparation
  • 356,5
  • Seminar
  • 56
  • Total
  • 412,5
Oral
Individual
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

The course aims to make use of multiple types of feedback in order to ensure, on the one hand, the constant communication between teacher and students, and, on the other hand, that students understand what is expected of them and learn the outcome of their work througout the course.

Credit
15 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Type of assessment details
Individual written assignment
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Exam period

Hand-in date: January 5, 2024

Re-exam

Hand-in date: February 13, 2024