LAW 664 - Cyber Law Seminar: Civil and Criminal Practice

Course Type: Upper Writing Requirement
Credits: 2

Description: This course will offer you the opportunity to examine and discuss the uniquely challenging, and evolving, legal and policy issues that are presented in any legal practice that deals with cyber law, regulations, and the use of digital evidence. What are the legal challenges and issues that we will need to deal with in the face of the fast-developing technology of “the internet of things” - and how to best understand and manage these challenges to our existing legal and business environment? How should judges, prosecutors, government and private businesses confront these challenges as they respond to a world filled with the actual and threatened cyber law violations clients are now facing? In fact, what constitutes or should be considered “cyber law” (and “cyber security threats”) and how is that reflected in civil and criminal legal practice? This course will consider how individual, business, and government entities have responded and should respond to these issues and attendant legal and policy considerations. Topics will include: What is, and should be, the balance between national security and privacy interests in cyberspace? What is the technology at issue and how, if at all, should it be regulated? What are the roles of public/private cooperation and the federal government? What is the intersection of cybersecurity and the law of armed conflict? How are cybercrimes most effectively investigated and prosecuted? Are there civil law remedies to cybercrimes and, if so, are the remedies effective? In both civil and criminal practices that might come across cyber law issues or violations, what is (and how best to manage) “digital evidence” that represents such a significant part of modern legal practice and litigation? Lastly, how should we as a society (domestic and international) deal with the concerns of personal privacy, encryption, and Internet freedom?