"Early treatment of computer law was no more than the application of existing principles to novel sets of facts. Today, it has been recognized generally that computing technology does indeed give rise to unique legal problems which are not resolvable by applying existing legal principles. This is particularly apparent where transactions are carried out through the exchange of digital information rather than human interaction. The developing law which seeks to resolve these problems is at the heart of the latest edition of this book, now established as a standard text on computer law for students, practitioners, and business in general for whom information technology is an integral part of their daily activities."--BOOK JACKET.
This book introduces law to computer scientists and other folk. Computer scientists develop, protect, and maintain computing systems in the broad sense of that term, whether hardware (a smartphone, a driverless car, a smart energy meter, a laptop, or a server), software (a program, an application programming interface or API, a module, code), or data (captured via cookies, sensors, APIs, or manual input). Computer scientists may be focused on security (e.g. cryptography), or on embedded systems (e.g. the Internet of Things), or on data science (e.g. machine learning). They may be closer to mathematicians or to electrical or electronic engineers, or they may work on the cusp of hardware and software, mathematical proofs and empirical testing. This book conveys the internal logic of legal practice, offering a hands-on introduction to the relevant domains of law, while firmly grounded in legal theory. It bridges the gap between two scientific practices, by presenting a coherent picture of the grammar and vocabulary of law and the rule of law, geared to those with no wish to become lawyers but nevertheless required to consider the salience of legal rights and obligations. Simultaneously, this book will help lawyers to review their own trade. It is a volume on law in an onlife world, presenting a grounded argument of what law does (speech act theory), how it emerged in the context of printed text (philosophy of technology), and how it confronts its new, data-driven environment. Book jacket.
This book introduces the future of criminal law. It covers every aspect of crime in the digital age, assembled together for the first time. Topics range from Internet surveillance law and the Patriot Act to computer hacking laws and the Council of Europe cybercrime convention. More and more crimes involve digital evidence, and computer crime law will be an essential area for tomorrow's criminal law practitioners. Many U.S. Attorney's Offices have started computer crime units, as have many state Attorney General offices, and any student with a background in this emerging area of law will have a leg up on the competition. This is the first law school book dedicated entirely to computer crime law. The materials are authored entirely by Orin Kerr, a new star in the area of criminal law and Internet law who has recently published articles in the Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review, NYU Law Review, and Michigan Law Review. The book is filled with ideas for future scholarship, including hundreds of important questions that have never been addressed in the scholarly literature. The book reflects the author's practice experience, as well: Kerr was a computer crime prosecutor at the Justice Department for three years, and the book combines theoretical insights with practical tips for working with actual cases. Students will find it easy and fun to read, and professors will find it an angaging introduction to a new world of scholarly ideas. The book is ideally suited either for a 2-credit seminar or a 3-credit course, and should appeal both to criminal law professors and those interested in cyberlaw or law and technology. No advanced knowledge of computers and the Internet is required or assumed.
The focus of this book is on the epistemological and hermeneutic implications of data science and artificial intelligence for democracy and the Rule of Law. How do the normative effects of automated decision systems or the interventions of robotic fellow ‘beings’ compare to the legal effect of written and unwritten law? To investigate these questions the book brings together two disciplinary perspectives rarely combined within the framework of one volume. One starts from the perspective of ‘code and law’ and the other develops from the domain of ‘law and literature’. Integrating original analyses of relevant novels or films, the authors discuss how computational technologies challenge traditional forms of legal thought and affect the regulation of human behavior. Thus, pertinent questions are raised about the theoretical assumptions underlying both scientific and legal practice.
The regulation of technology is an important and topical area of law, relevant to almost all aspects of society. Technology Law: Australian and International Perspectives presents a thorough exploration of the new legal challenges created by evolving technologies, from the use of facial recognition technology in criminal investigations to the rise and regulation of cryptocurrencies. A well-written and fascinating introduction to technology law in Australia and internationally, Technology Law provides thorough coverage of the theoretical perspectives, legislation, cases and developing issues where technology and the law interact. The text covers data protection and privacy, healthcare technology, criminal justice technology, commercial transactions, cybercrime, social media and intellectual property, and canvasses the future of technology and technology law. Written by leading experts in the field, Technology Law is an excellent resource for law students and legal professionals with an interest in the area.
This textbook has established itself as the leading text on computer law for non-specialist students studying the course as part of a business information technology, computing or engineering course.
Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing interrogates the legal implications of the notion and experience of human agency implied by the emerging paradigm of autonomic computing, and the socio-technical infrastructures it supports. The development of autonomic computing and ambient intelligence – self-governing systems – challenge traditional philosophical conceptions of human self-constitution and agency, with significant consequences for the theory and practice of constitutional self-government. Ideas of identity, subjectivity, agency, personhood, intentionality, and embodiment are all central to the functioning of modern legal systems. But once artificial entities become more autonomic, and less dependent on deliberate human intervention, criteria like agency, intentionality and self-determination, become too fragile to serve as defining criteria for human subjectivity, personality or identity, and for characterizing the processes through which individual citizens become moral and legal subjects. Are autonomic – yet artificial – systems shrinking the distance between (acting) subjects and (acted upon) objects? How ‘distinctively human’ will agency be in a world of autonomic computing? Or, alternatively, does autonomic computing merely disclose that we were never, in this sense, ‘human’ anyway? A dialogue between philosophers of technology and philosophers of law, this book addresses these questions, as it takes up the unprecedented opportunity that autonomic computing and ambient intelligence offer for a reassessment of the most basic concepts of law.
