LL220 Half Unit
Technology Law and Regulation
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Availability
This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law, BSc in Data Science, Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study, Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley and LLB in Laws. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available with permission to General Course students.
This course is capped. Places will be assigned on a first come first served basis.
Requisites
Additional requisites:
This course does not require an in-depth understanding of contemporary computer technology – we are primarily interested in the implications of the use of information technology, and the intended and unintended consequences of regulating that use.
Course content
This course examines and discusses topical issues in relation to the law and digital data information storage, access, and exchange through digital information devices (computers, smartphones, tablets etc.). It examines issues relating to network regulation or control by addressing questions such as “can internet-enabled communications be regulated?” with which aims? and “who is competent to police online content and activity?” It concludes its examination of structural controls by examining the highly topical and politically charged issue of enshrined network neutrality: by asking the question: should Internet Service Providers be allowed to vary service conditions by types of content? It will also address cutting edge issues such as algorithmic regulation, profiling, deceptive content, the regulation of AI, legal technologies and dispute resolution, and online safety.
The course is delivered in two parts: (1) An introduction to technology regulation and governance (Code as Law) and (2) Governance of and by Algorithms.
Aims and Objectives:
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Critically evaluate ongoing developments in law relating to information and communications technologies (ICTs);
- Display an understanding of how these developments relate to one another;
- Examine areas of doctrinal and policy debate surrounding rules and theories;
- Evaluate those rules and theories in terms of internal coherence and practical outcomes;
- Draw on the analysis and evaluation contained in primary and secondary sources.
Indicative Content:
- Digitisation, Datafication and Law; Normative worlds
- The History of the Internet
- How We Regulate the Internet: Lawrence Lessig’s Modalities and their Critiques
- How We Regulate the Internet: Contemporary Approaches
- Net Neutrality
- Surveillance Capitalism and Personal Data Privacy
- Dominant Platforms: Market Regulation
- Dominant Platforms: Platform Governance
- Regulating Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning I: Legal Risks and Challenges
- Regulating Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning II: The Regulatory Landscape
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Legal Practice
This is an indicative programme.
Teaching
20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
Indicative reading
- Murray: Information Technology Law: Law and Society 5th ed (Oxford: OUP, 2023)
- Anu Bradford, Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology (OUP, 2023)
- Phillip Hacker, Andreas Engel & Marco Mauer: Regulating ChatGPT and other Large Generative AI Models Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT ’23) June 2023.
- Lessig: Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace ver.2.0 (New York: Basic Books, 2006).
Suggested Initial Reading:
Murray: Information Technology Law: Law and Society 5th ed, Ch.1.
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period
This exam will consist of discursive essay questions.
Key facts
Department: LSE Law School
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 5
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 39
Average class size 2024/25: 10
Capped 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
For this course, please see the following link/s:
Course Guide Video https://youtu.be/NapLR1kvWms
Personal development skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills