LLAW6170 & JDOC6170
General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6170 / JDOC6170 |
| Course name: | Law and the Internet |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
Information and communication technologies are part of the very fabric of contemporary societies. Their understanding and mastery are a required form of literacy in the 21st century. Social dynamics everywhere have changed because of ICTs and in the image of these a new social paradigm has been formed. Sociologist Manuel Castells has termed this new social paradigm “informationalism”, in contrast with the idea of “industrialism” that characterized 20th century societies. As a social science, law is not imune to these transformations but is rather profoundly influenced by them, to the point that we can speak of a new stage in legal scholarship and practice – of the Law of the Information Society.
In our course, we keep the name “Information Technology Law” for historical reasons, but our objective is precisely that of empirically assessing some of these transformations which, in its different areas, the law of contemporary societies has been undergoing. While other courses in our programme (for instance, “Regulation of Cyberspace”) question at a higher level of abstraction the normative foundations of such transformations, in “Introduction to IT Law” our aim is to give you an introductory overview of the concrete, practical shifts that the institutions of law have been experiencing in a number of different areas – from Identity and Privacy to Intellectual Property, and from Defamation and Liability in Virtual Worlds to Cybercrime and Jurisdiction.
The focus of our course is on major common law jurisdictions, taking the law in the United Kingdom and in Hong Kong as a starting point. Nonetheless, occasional – and in some areas extensive – references to the law in the European Union will be made.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Marcelo Thompson | marcelo.thompson@hku.hk | CCT 308 | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Be able to identify the sources of information technology law and apply them to solve important legal problems of contemporary information societies;
CLO 2 Develop a critical and comparative appreciation of the ways in which different jurisdictions tackle these problems; and
CLO 3 Be familiar with a number of substantive topics that will be relevant for further research in this field.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Mid-term essay | 17 Mar 2023 | 35% | 1, 2, 3 | |
| Take home exam | TBC | 65% | 1 | 1, 2, 3 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by course convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Lecture: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/