3 ECTS credits
90 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 6022047FNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Impossible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Taught in
English
Faculty
Faculty of Law and Criminology
Department
International and European Law
Educational team
Evangelos Papakonstantinou (course titular)
Joris Van Hoboken
Activities and contact hours
26 contact hours Lecture
64 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

This course analyses the challenges that new developments in communication, computing and data processing represent for the law, taking a European perspective. The course explores the intersections between EU policies and the digital transformation from the perspective of the digital economy and public security. It throws light on the major challenges of the digital economy and contextualises contemporary debates on data (data ‘ownership’ and data ‘sovereignty’) and new types of services (cloud computing, online platforms). It will also address criminal law aspects of digital transformation, such as the fight against cybercrime.

The first part focuses on the EU legal response to the digital transformation, the digital ecosystem of digital services. It assesses the algorithmic systems (AI), online platform regulation, telecommunications and media regulation. It also tackles the EU approach to the liability and responsibility of online service providers, the role of fundamental rights in relevant legal frameworks, the emergence of new risk regulation approaches, oversight and enforcement, transparency and accountability.

The second part focuses on public law, (cyber)security, and criminal law-based regulation to combat cyber-crime. It discusses (cyber)security, state techniques to combat (cyber)criminality, as well as, the growing trend towards European criminal law (Schengen, Europol, etc.). Additionally, the course will highlight how contemporary data practices, typically bringing together both public and private actors across complex jurisdictional boundaries, need a sound understanding of different legal fields and instruments. Special attention is given to both EU internal challenges (such as the delimitation of EU/national competence, acutely contested in (national) security matters), and external challenges, investigating the legal and institutional issues surrounding the role of the EU as a global (data) actor.

Additional info

Mandatory reading (including draft regulatory initiatives and related official reports) is communicated in advance to students, prior to sessions.

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

The course will familiarise students with all relevant legal and policy fields in relation to the regulation of data and related issues in the EU. After successful completion students will be able to explain the concept of digital transformation and the major legal challenges this brings about for the EU, understand the emergence of cloud computing and online platforms and their regulation at EU level, argue how fundamental rights are relevant in the EU’s response to the digital transformation, understand the relevance of important regulatory approaches, including cybersecurity and risk regulation as well as the combination of transparency and accountability, apply relevant legal provisions from platform regulation, the regulation of AI and algorithmic systems, as well as, explain what cybersecurity and cybercrime is and what their major challenges are for legislators and for practitioners.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 50% of the final mark.
Written Exam determines 50% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Oral exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 50% of the final mark.

    Note: N/A

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Written exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 50% of the final mark.

    Note: N/A

Additional info regarding evaluation

The students will be evaluated on the basis of a written exam (combining short open-ended questions with a broader question, in which several issue areas will intersect, 50% of final evaluation), and an oral exam (questions on the mandatory literature and on the contents of the lectures, 50% of final evaluation).

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of International and European Law: Standaard traject