Information Technology Law and Cyberspace 

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In 2017 we wish to continue the discussions and debates we have commenced in previous years that have engaged from a variety of perspectives with the legal regulation of cyberspace and new information technologies. We continue to live in an age of excitement and disruption in the interface of law and information technology. Privacy of our data and the most intimate aspects of our lives captured by these technologies presents the law with particular challenges. The ongoing war on terror is said to provide the justification for new forms of state surveillance, but can the law make those that collect this information accountable? The use of social media to send chilling messages of hate, harassment and offense continues to conflict with its role as a place for uncensored public debate. Wearable technology has created new forms of social interaction that both liberate and enslave. Robots now intervene in more and more tasks previously undertaken by humans, such as driving and policing.  How should the law respond?

 

This stream welcomes papers that seek to critically unwrap the manner in which the law has been co-opted into the information and technology age and the new forms of social and legal space that it has created.  Presenters will be invited to submit their finished papers for inclusion in a potential special issue of the journal Information and Communications Technology Law, to be edited by the stream convenors following the conference.

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Conveners

Brian Simpson (brian.simpson@une.edu.au) and Mark O'Brien (mark.obrien@brookes.ac.uk)