The emerging disciplines of Information Technology and Communications Law are among the most dynamic and exciting legal developments in recent years. The LSE Law Department is at the leading edge of these fields. We have a team of experts researching a variety of aspects within these subjects ranging from Internet governance and regulation, electronic contracting, regulation of Internet content and copyright, through to universal service provisions, network regulation and telecommunications regulation within developing markets.
The Law Department collaborates closely with the Media@LSE research centre, which is a focus for interdisciplinary research within the fields of telecommunications, media and new media and boasts a team of internationally renowned scholars drawn from the Law, Information Systems, Sociology and Social Policy, Economics and Government Departments, and from the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation. This inter-disciplinary research group runs a range of seminars for graduate students and draws upon a wide range of speakers from both sides of the regulatory divide to provide contemporary insights into the fast-changing regulatory structures in these subject areas. LLM students are welcome to attend these informal and informative seminars. For further details, see the LSE Information Technology Law web pages at
www.itlawweb.co.uk
Core Courses
Legal Regulation of Information Technology: the legal ramifications of
computerisation and the Internet, focusing on e-commerce, intellectual property
rights, privacy rights, censorship and computer crime, and considering the
problems of competing sectional interests, globalisation, enforcement and
trans-jurisdictionality.
Preliminary Reading: I. Lloyd, Information Technology
Law (4th edn, Butterworths, 2004) Chs 1 & 2; L Lessig, Code and Other Laws
of Cyberspace (Basic Books, 2000), Chs 6 & 7; R Susskind, Transforming the
Law (OUP, 2000) Chs 1 & 2. Internet
and New Media Law: current issues in the regulation of new media. This
course focuses on the Internet, but also examines the Wireless Application Protocol and Third Generation Mobile Technology; the focus is on a comparative socio-legal analysis of the
regulatory structures which control Internet navigation and content
Preliminary reading: Johnson & Post,
Law and Borders - The Rise of Law in Cyberspace 48 Stan. L. Rev. 1367 (1996);
F. Easterbrook, Cyberspace
and the Law of the Horse 1996 U Chi Legal F 207; L. Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach 113 Harv. L. Rev. 501 (1999);
L. Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (Basic Books, New York, 1998) Chs 6
& 7.
Copyright and Related Rights: the law of copyright and related rights in the UK, analysed in the context of the history of the institution of copyright; arguments for and against the expansion of copyright; copyright's role in UK cultural policy; its relationship with technologies, institutions and investment strategies that sustain the global culture industries
Preliminary Reading: David Hesmondhalgh, The Cultural Industries (London: Sage, 2002); Neil
Netanel, "Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society" (1996) 106 Yale Law Journal 283-387; Mark Rose, "The Author as Proprietor: Donaldson v. Beckett and the Genealogy of Modern Authorship" in Brad Sherman and Alain Strouwel
(eds). Of Authors and Origins: Essays on Copyright Law (Clarendon: Oxford, 1994).
Options
Media Law: This course examines the legal and administrative regulation of the mass media, principally the press and broadcasting media. It covers the legal constraints placed on the media by the general law of breach of confidence, defamation, copyright, contempt of court and other statutory reporting restrictions. It also examines the central place of media freedom, the freedom to report and discuss matters of public interest, and looks at the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, in particular the balancing act between press freedom and individual privacy. Other aspects covered include the open justice principle and its application to reporting court proceedings, protection of journalists’ sources, and press self- regulation, including the Press Complaints Commission code and complaints procedure
Introduction to Regulation: key topics in the study of regulation from a comparative and generic perspective with examples drawn from public administration, socio-legal studies and institutional economics (half unit).
Media and Communications Regulation: a comparative and generic introduction to key issues in the regulation of media and communications, focusing on economic and content regulation of print media, broadcasting, postal and
telecommunications services and the internet, and including coverage of problems relating to the convergence of media and communications (half unit)
Regulation: Legal and Political Aspects: theories and case studies of regulation encountered in public policy, administration, legal literature, examining the origins, development and reform of regulation; the styles and processes of regulation; the issues surrounding enforcement; the inter-organizational and international aspects of regulation; and questions of evaluation and accountability.
Staff involved in IT and Communications
Law
Ms. Anne
Barron
- Reader in Copyright Law
Mr. Andrew Murray
- Reader in IT & New Media Law
Dr. Andrew
Scott - Senior Lecturer in Media and
Competition Law
Dr. Shiva Thambisetty
- Lecturer in Patent Law
Mr. Dev Ganjee - Lecturer in Trade Mark Law
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