Handbook

This course will focus on the regulation of the online world and its social and cultural expression, and will explore these ideas from the viewpoint of users, community members, creators, citizens and consumers, particularly those engaging with Social Media and other ‘user generated content’ services. Cyberspace Law 2.0 is a General Studies elective subject for non-law- students, while LAWS3532 is available for certain law students.

It provides a good grounding for understanding how the legal and regulatory world interacts with online ones, especially from the perspective of the socially and culturally active individual. (While there are elements of market regulation and consumer protection considered, these are not the main focus.)

Main Topics

The Cyberspace Law 2.0 Course aims to assist you to:

•     Appreciate how the online social and cultural environment is similar and different from the physical world from a regulatory perspective;

•  become familiar with reading and understanding court case judgments, how they are constructed, how arguments won and lost;

• be able to take a systematic approach to analysing the legal issues involved in various problems and conflicts commonly encountered in online social and cultural scenarios;

• develop an understanding of the implications of different countries and jurisdictions having different laws, while many online services cover the world;

• understand the range of options which may be available for dealing with online disputes, in particular between individuals or between individuals and their cyberspace or online community services, and how to choose amongst them.