Postgraduate Course: Communications, networks, and the law (LAWS11311)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course covers the regulation of communications networks and services, focusing particularly on the Internet and its most current challenges (e.g. privacy, net neutrality, search engines) taking into account a range of different perspectives from the liberalisation of telecommunications over the course of the 20th century to the rise of communication rights in the information society.
The course will be organised along two main directions: we will first focus on over-arching, cross-cutting questions of these days, such as policy and regulatory rationales of communications law and the interplay between national and supra-national decision-making institutions, and then move on to cover a number of specific themes among the most widely discussed within both the academic and practitioner fields such as price control, social and universal service obligation, separation and new entry, technological neutrality (e.g. between wired and wireless), cross-border agreements, and consumer protection.
The course will privilege a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach exploring perspectives on the communications industries from other disciplines (particularly the relationship between law and innovation and between communication technologies and society) and the interaction between communications law and other forms of regulation (e.g. competition, media, trade).
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| Course description |
Session titles
1. Communications Law: Rationales, development, challenges
2. Why regulate the Internet? An Infrastructure for Free Speech
3. Why Regulate the Internet? Liberalisation, competition and industry efficiency
4. Who Regulates the Internet? Global Governance of Communications Networks and Its Challenges
5. Who Regulates the Internet? The Regulatory Design of the Communications Industry At European and National Level
6. Authorisation, licensing and access today
7. Universal service and consumers¿ rights
8. Net Neutrality
9. Network Integrity, cybersecurity and on-line crimes
10. Privacy, data protection and the right to be forgotten
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 25 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Assessment
¿ one 1500 word written exercise (20%) to be submitted half-way through the course,
¿ one 4000 word essay (70%) to be submitted after the end of the course and
¿ participation (10%) in the classroom discussions.
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- By the end of the module students should:
1. have a deeper understanding of the legal issues arising in the communications industry (including user/consumer perspectives);
2. appreciate the limits on administrative action in the UK and elsewhere;
3. be able to engage in debate as to the type of regulatory measures appropriate for different forms of communication, and
4. comprehend the role of international law ("hard" and "soft") for this field.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | networks,telecommunications,regulation,Internet,ITU |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Paolo Cavaliere
Tel: (0131 6)51 5137
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Karin Bolton
Tel: (0131 6)50 2022
Email: |
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