JUTPRIV – Privacy, Data Protection and Lex Informatica

Schedule, syllabus and examination date

Course content

Note: This course will be given a new code from spring semester 2006, and you will find all relevant information JUR5630 – Privacy, Data Protection and Lex Informatica (discontinued)

The primary aim of the course is to facilitate a solid understanding of legal policies on privacy and data protection, particularly in the context of distributed computer networks such as the Internet. More specifically, the course seeks to illuminate the rationale and regulatory logic of such policies along with the various technological challenges that they face.

The secondary aim of the course is to facilitate an understanding of the regulatory impact of information technology; that is, to analyse the significance and role of what has been termed “lex informatica” (Reidenberg).

The course seeks also to illuminate legal-regulatory issues related to freedom of expression, the increasing automatisation of decision-making processes, the increasingly cross-national character of organisational transactions, and the interaction of legal norms with the regulatory effects of IT and other non-legal instruments, such as sectoral codes of practice.

The themes taken up in the course may be summed up with the following key-words: privacy, data protection, surveillance, Internet, cyberspace, encryption, freedom of expression, automated decision making, rule of law, codes of practice, electronic commerce.

With respect to law on privacy and data protection, the primary points of departure for course discussion will be the 1995 EC Directive on data protection (Directive 95/46/EC of 24.10.1995) and case law pursuant to Article 8 of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). Special attention will also be given to the 2002 EC Directive on privacy and electronic communications (Directive 2002/58/EC), Norway’s Personal Data Act of 2000 (Personopplysningsloven) and Germany’s Teleservices Data Protection Act of 1997 (Teledienstedatenschutzgesetz).”

Learning outcome

See above regarding requirements and syllabus (detailed course information)

Admission

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Prerequisites

Recommended previous knowledge

Least 3 years of law studies.

Teaching

Lectures/seminars

Ordinary classroom lectures supplemented by e-mail discussion

Examination

6-hour written exam

Resit an examination

Withdrawal from an examination

It is possible to take this exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.

There are special rules for resitting a passed examination in the master's programme in Law.

Facts about this course

Credits
15
Teaching
Every spring
Examination
Every spring
Teaching language
English