Conclusions of Working Group 1 : Undergraduate teaching in the field of Law and ICT Cesare Maioli - Dag Wiese Schartum- Robert Queck LEFIS General Assembly Wroclaw September 2007 Some comments on "ICT-Law and undergraduate studies compliant with the European Tuning initiative" ?

2 Outline I.Introduction to the subject area : why teaching (and research) in ICT and IS- Law? II.Degree profiles : why and how teach ICT and IS-Law at undergraduate level (Bachelor)? 1. Why start already at Bachelor's level? 2. The general "Bachelor in law" 3. A specific "Bachelor in computers and law" 4. Role of ICT-Law in other degree programmes III.Learning outcomes, competences and courses 1. Principles 2. Some general competences to be acquired 3. Courses to be taught in a general "Bachelor in law" 4. Courses to be taught in a specific "Bachelor in computer law" IV.Workload and ECTS V.Learning, teaching and assessment VI.Quality enhancement

3 I.Introduction to the subject area : why teaching (and research) in ICT and IS- Law?

4 I. Why teaching (and research) in ICT and IS-Law? The context: => ICT are increasingly part of our daily life and our society is (at least on its way to become) an Information Society ICT IS So cie ty ==> Techno- logy Socio- logy Economics / Management LAW

5 I. Why teaching (and research) in ICT and IS-Law?, ctd. Law as a tool for organizing life in society is 1. a key element in this evolution (ex ante by fostering it – ex post by organizing and controlling) and 2. is itself shaped and influenced by this evolution => Various interrelationships between ICT/computers – law  "Law as framework" / "ICT-computer as object of law"  "Law as content" / "law in computer programmes"  "ICT-computers as tools"  "ICT-computers as catalytic agents" => Teaching (and research) is a requirement for the capability of drafting, knowing, understanding, applying and improving those rules => Teaching ICT-Law requires a multi- (inter-) disciplinary approach in order to take into account the "raw material" rules have to deal with

6 II. Degree profiles : why and how teach ICT and IS Law at undergraduate level (Bachelor)?

7 II.1. Why start already at Bachelor’s level? All law programmes must take into account the environment in which law is created and applied and therefore ICT and IS  Most branches of law have to take into account ICT related elements (e.g. contract law and electronic signatures or Procedural Law – use of ICT in the administration of justice )  ICT are today a tool for lawyers from the start (e.g. course on legal methodology N.B.: the integration of ICT-Law elements in Bachelor courses must be taken into account at the level of related (complementary) Masters

8 II.2. The general "Bachelor in law" Objective: train good general practitioners in law who may – to a limited extent – access to labour market  the Bachelor curriculum aims at providing a complete coverage of the necessary basic legal topics = the “basics”  + a lawyer needs to understand and take into account the environment in which law is created and applied: legal courses are complemented by other disciplines e.g. economics, computer science => Courses address: law as a framework – law as a content / computers as tools – ICT as catalytic agents N.B.: Courses aiming at specialization are in principle reserved for the Master programme, e.g. Tax Law, International Law

9 II.3. A specific "Bachelor in computers and law" Would it provide a knowledge too specific and a basis too narrow for the education of the student at graduate level ?  Not if one adopts a more professionalizing view of the Bachelor degree  A specific Bachelor degree in computers and law would allow / need inter- and multi-disciplinarity as aim and basic approach  Would not lead to a classical legal carrier but to specific professions, e.g. the "Operator in Law and Information Technology" N.B.: such a degree would require in some MS amendment of existing law => Courses address: law as a framework – law as a content / computers as tools – ICT as catalytic agents

10 II.4. Role of ICT-Law in other degree programmes Legal norms ruling ICT and in general IS are increasingly a basic input in degree programmes other than law => Programmes addressing ICT / IS as a main topic e.g. from a technological (e.g. bachelor in computer science) or business / management approach => In these degrees, the ICT-Law elements would normally concentrated within one "Computer Law" course N.B.: teaching law to non-lawyers requires a different pedagogy than the one used with lawyers

11 III. Learning outcomes, competences and courses

12 III.1. Principles Both, the general and the specific Bachelor degrees, should be based on fundamental legal/political principles of the European legal culture, such as democracy, privacy, rule of law, freedom of contracts and freedom of information Concrete subject topics should be dynamically selected and shaped for taking into account the rapid and unpredictable evolution of the technological and economical context of the rules as well as the shifting needs of society Programmes should be given distinct profiles reflecting the specialization of the organizing institution Programmes should facilitate students exchanges, e.g. by complementary profiles of programmes and by coordinated organization / content of semesters

13 III.2. Some general competences to be acquired in both types of Bachelor degrees General basic skills: to identify, know (including update), understand, put in context and apply to simple cases the "legal" rules concerned => this implies notably  To carry out independent and critical retrieval and processing of relevant information  To cope with evolution of rules + of their technological /economical context  To analyse critically legal texts (internal coherence and external efficiency)  To c arry out independent and critical analyses of problems /cases and take decisions on this basis  To formulate and communicate relevant questions, analyses and results, both orally and in writing, individually and in groups

14 III.2. Some general competences to be acquired in both types of Bachelor degrees, ctd. Some skills to be acquired by law students related to ICT and ICT-Law  Understanding of the mutual influence between ICT and law as well as between the development of the Information Society and law  Understanding of basic concepts like "software", "data base", "telecoms", "organizational and business processes", of their use in information systems as well as of related legal issues  Identification and understanding of normative issues concerning the proper scope and application of public and private law to of ICT and IS  Elementary ICT skills  Relate to people with another disciplinary background ……

15 III.3. Courses to be taught in a general "Bachelor in law" ICT / IS and ICT/IS related elements should be taken into account by:  General courses and courses dedicated to general principles - Courses on general principles should address the way in which general concepts are affected by ICT - A course on legal methodology and reasoning which should address paper AND electronic sources (off-line and on-line) and put the emphasis on technical AND intellectual control

16 III.3. Courses to be taught in a general "Bachelor in law", ctd.  Courses dedicated to specific legal branches e.g. contract law  Courses specifically dedicated to computer (systems) and ICT-Law => a certain "digital culture" and general usage capacities are today "basic knowledge" -A specific course dedicated to computer and ICT-Law as such - A course giving a technical introduction to computer systems and legal informatics - beware of "pseudo-knowledge" ! => ICT / IS and ICT/IS related elements should also be taken into account by:

17 III.4. Courses to be taught in a specific "Bachelor in computers and law" Courses equivalent to 10 ECTS-credits should address some of the following topics:  E-democracy and freedom of information  E-government and rule of law  E-business and e-contracting  Intellectual property  Privacy, data protection and data security  Computer-crime and security  E-Justice  Electronic communications ……

18 III.4. Courses to be taught in a specific "Bachelor in computers and law", ctd. Complementary, non-legal courses should be offered as a foundation (assistance to) those dedicated to legal topics, e.g.  Computer systems and networks  Management of computer systems N.B. 1: legal courses already should have in mind the other disciplines, but specific interdisciplinary course(s) could be useful e.g. economic foundations of ICT-regulation N.B. 2: demarcation with Master courses could sometimes be difficult

19 IV. Workload and ECTS

20 IV. Workload and ECTS Overall workload of all Bachelor degrees: 3 x 60 credits => 1 credit = 24 h work (assistance to lectures + preparations, exercises, research, exams,…) Bachelor in law:  Within general law courses ICT aspects could be represented for an equivalent value of ± 12 to 20 credits (including a course on legal methodology)  2 Courses specifically dedicated to ICT and ICT-Law: 6 credits overall Specific Bachelor in computers and law:  Legal courses: between 40 and 80 credits  Some 20 credits should be attained in connection to the generic competences  Non-legal courses: some 80 credits

21 V. Learning, teaching and assessment

22 V. Learning, teaching and assessment The "classics": lectures (taking appropriate notes = part of the learning process), seminar groups, exercise sessions (emphasis on application of rules to cases) and homework both with written and oral presentations – no thesis ICT, computers, access to internet should be used as a support for pedagogy and courses: within courses AND after/ beyond courses towards “e-learning”? Practitioners (barristers, judges, researchers,…) should be invited in general courses and lecture more specialized courses

23 VI. Quality enhancement

24 VI. Quality enhancement Teaching, esp. for the specific Bachelor degree, should rely on input of specialized research centres Fast and unpredictable evolution of technologies, markets, society needs => permanent scrutiny + evaluation every 2 years * Peer review + practitioners : barristers and judges but also computer scientists, economists, sociologists, … ) * Take into account the surrounding teaching offer: esp. Master programmes, continuing education

25 VII. Conclusions

26 VII. Conclusions Taking into account ICT related elements within law courses and teaching ICT-Law as such is justified and needed already at undergraduate level A multi-disciplinary approach is needed to a varying extent => general bachelor degree ≠ specific bachelor degree Some reluctance by universities / faculties to engage in the new academic field of ICT-Law teaching and in adopting a multi-disciplinary approach may be overcome by examples seen in the context of cooperation and networks like LEFIS