Undergraduate Module Descriptor

LAW3188: Internet Law

This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims at providing you with a thorough understanding of select issues arising from the development of the Internet and the increased popularity of online transactions. The focus of the module will be on the societal shift that the development of the Internet brought about and the resulting need for policymakers to accommodate the new market trends in their law-making. Various areas of law struggle to accommodate the rise of the Internet and online transactions, either by attempting to stretch the interpretation of the existing regulatory framework to cover the newly identified in online transactions issues, or by devising new rules applicable specifically to the digital market. The module aims to provide you with the necessary legal, theoretical and contextual background in order to analyse effectively the rationales, application and limits of various rules adopted by legislators while regulating the Internet. Due to the comprehensive framework of discussed issues, touching upon different areas of private law, you will improve your academic analytical skills, but also learn to engage critically with law in context.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.

On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge and a thorough understanding of the main areas of Internet law;
2. identify, explain and critically evaluate the main legal instruments regulating Internet law;
3. demonstrate critical awareness of a wide range of social, moral, pragmatic and economic implications of regulating Internet law;
4. compare, analyse and synthesise the principal rules and theories relating to Internet law.
Discipline-Specific Skills5. demonstrate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of a range of legal concepts, values, principles, institutions and procedures, and explain the relationships among them, as well as their limits;
6. demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of legal concepts and their contextual, social and commercial implications;
7. apply legal knowledge to a problem/case study and suggest a conclusion supported by relevant arguments;
8. integrate and assess information from primary and secondary legal sources using appropriate interpretative techniques.
Personal and Key Skills9. manage relevant learning resources/information and develop own arguments and opinions with minimum guidance;
10. communicate and engage in debate effectively and accurately, in a manner appropriate to the discipline.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

  • Savin, EU Internet Law (2018 Edward Elgar)
  • Special issues of the Journal of European Consumer and Market Law (EuCML), 1/2016 on sharing economy(and various article in this journal related to the liability of online intermediaries)
  • S. Gijrath, S. van der Hof, A.R. Lodder, G-J. Zwemme (eds.), Concise European Data Protection, E-Commerce and IT Law (2018 Wolters Kluwer)
  • L. Edwards, Law, Policy and the Internet (2018 Hart Publishing), ch. 1-2, 9-12
  • V. Eubanks, Automating Inequality (Macmillian 2018)
  • S. Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression (New York University Press 2018)
  • N. Bonde Thylstrup, The Politics of Mass Digitization (The MIT Press 2019)
  • A. White, Digital Media and Society: Transforming Economics, Politics and Social Practices (Palgrave 2014)
  • L. Lessig, Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy (The Penguin Press 2008)
  • M. Lemley, ‘IP in a World Without Scarcity’ [2015] 90 New York University Law Review 460-515
  • C. Jensen, ‘The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Copyright, Digital Technology, and Social Norms’ [2003] 56 Stanford Law Review 571-570
  • W. Dutton, A. Dopaka, M. Hills, G. Law and V. Nash, ‘Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet’ (UNESCO 2010)