Frank Guldenmund
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Name |
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Technology and law |
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Period |
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Q2 |
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EC |
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5 |
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Educational method(s) |
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Lectures |
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Course code |
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WM0713TU |
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Lecturer(s) |
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mr. dr. C. van Noortwijk (EUR) |
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Contribution of course to objectives |
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Insight into the effects that technology has on society and its legal foundations and into the role that law can have to lead technological developments in the right direction |
Course description
Science and technology are the cause of many developments in society. The invention of the steam engine paved the way for the industrial revolution, while that of the computer formed the basis for the current ‘information society’. The transport of people, commodities and data has become cheap and efficient, which has led to globalization. At the same time, our way of thinking has also changed: people have become more rational and calculating.
Law is strongly influenced by these technological developments. New techniques cause new legal problems for which a solution needs to be found. This course focuses upon certain of these problems. Examples are: downloading music and movies from the internet; the legal protection of computer software, databases and data; ecommerce and electronic markets; privacy protection and computer crime; legal questions of ‘Social media’ and the liability of intermediary service providers. In addition to these practical aspects, the impact of technology on the development of legal principles will be dealt with.
Furthermore, information technology has given rise to new possibilities for legal practice as well as for performing (empirical) legal research. Several of such new possibilities will be discussed during this course. Among these are new ways to increase legal knowledge by means of empirical research (sometimes called: jurimetrics research), as well as to manage this knowledge and to apply it in practice.
Objectives:
- Knowledge of and insight into the development cycles of technology, related to developments in society;
- Knowledge of certain legal aspects of technological developments and insight into the possibilities to guide these developments by means of legislation;
- Knowledge of ways to protect new technological developments legally, for instance by means of Intellectual Property Law;
- Knowledge of ways in which technology itself can be used as a tool to solve certain problems in the information age, for instance with respect to the authenticity of documents that are increasingly produced and stored digitally;
- The ability to assess the impact of IT developments for the legal profession and to gain insight in new tools and methodologies (for instance, for performing legal research) that are (or will be) available to lawyers.
Assessment:
Written examination
Literature:
TBA