IT Law

Thematic headings

Technologies, innovation, law and society

EU Digital Single Market I: Regulation of Digital Services

EU Digital Single Market II: ISP Liability

EU Digital Single Market III: Cybersecurity

EU Digital Single Market IV: Regulation of Artificial Intelligence

Legal Informatics

Cybercrime

Electronic Evidence

Syllabus

Instruction language:

English

Type of Instruction:

Lectures, Study of literature

Type of exams:

Open-book examination (50%), legal advice (Memorandum) (50%),

Lecturers:

doc. JUDr. Jozef Andraško, PhD. (jozef.andrasko@flaw.uniba.sk),

JUDr. Matúš Mesarčík, PhD., LL. M. (matus.mesarcikflaw.uniba.sk)

Mgr. Petra Dražová, PhD. (petra.drazova@flaw.uniba.sk)

JUDr. Zoltán Gyurász, PhD. (zoltan.gyurasz@flaw.uniba.sk)

Institute of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law, Comenius University in Bratislava.

Objectives

After passing the course a student shall understand and apply basic theoretical and practical issues concerning Information and Technology Law.

The main objectives of the course are:

To make students aware of the recurring patterns and stages of development of new technologies, especially the stages in which options and risks for society are potentially visible
To provide students with the basics of regulation studies and ethics regarding technology regulation that will help them to obtain an in-depth understanding of the technological and socio-economic context of law
To make students acquainted with different types of regulation when it comes to regulating technology in different fields of IT law (privacy and data protection, public administration, internet liability etc).

The aim is also to develop legal thinking and legal analysis via researching and drafting a paper from the field of IT Law.

Contents

The Information and Technology Law course provides a student accurate scientific and practical knowledge from various fields of interaction of law and technology. A student shall understand basic concepts of interaction of law and technology, different modalities of regulations and centred and decentred concept of regulation in cyberspace. After the primer on law and technology and interaction of technologies and human rights the course is focused on public administration and related issues i.e. cyber security or eGovernment. Furthermore, the emphasis is put on internet liability and current issues of privacy and data protection in the digital society.

Lecture

Students are obliged to read required materials as part of the preparation for the class. These materials are marked as "Compulsory Reading" in the outline. Furthermore, student is obliged to read with understanding legislative acts that are marked as "Compulsory Study". Student has to bring "Compulsory Study" materials (in electronic or paper form) to the class for purposes of case study. It is possible to deepen interest in particular topic by reading materials marked as "Recommended Reading" in the outline.

Lectures will take place in every week on Tuesday at 15.15:

Moodle

Students are required to enroll themselves in the course IT Law via Moodle https://moodle.uniba.sk/ Enrollment key: ITlaw2024.

Exam

The course exam is composed of two activities - open-book examination (50%) and drafting of a legal advice (Memorandum) (50%). You are obliged to obtain at least 60 % to pass the course.

Legal Advice (Memorandum)

Students are assigned specific topic for drafting a memorandum (legal advice) for the client in the field of ICT law. The task of the student is to analyse the topic and provide the client with comprehensive and relevant advice. The advice shall follow the form of a memorandum, commonly prepared in the law firms. The memorandum shall consist of 2000-2500 words (excluding footnotes) and shall be submitted via designated space in the Moodle until 2.5.2025.

The submission will be scanned with software for detecting automated generated text (e.g. via ChatGPT).

Open book case study

The final exam will consist of a case study that accounts for 50% of the overall evaluation. The final exam is an open book exam and will take place on 13.5.2025.

1. Introduction

2.Technologies, innovation, law and society

Compulsory reading:

KOOPS, B.-J. – PRINS, C. : Internationalization and ICT Law. 2000, https://pure.uvt.nl/ws/files/374030/CLSR-CII-DEF.PDF

LESSIG, L. : Laws of cyberspace. 1998, https://cyber.harvard.edu/works/lessig/laws_cyberspace.pdf

3. EU Digital Single Market I: Regulation of Digital Services

Compulsory reading:

HUSOVEC,M. - LAGUNA, I.R : Digital Services Act: A Short Primer. 2022. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4153796.

FOLKERT, W. : The Digital Services Act (DSA) - An Overview. 2023. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4304586.

Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act)

4. EU Digital Single Market II: ISP Liability

Compulsory study:

Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act) (Text with EEA relevance) Articlec 4-10

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj

Compulsory reading:

Judgement of the CJEU in Case C-314/12 - UPC Telekabel Wien. Available at: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?docid=149924&doclang=EN

Recommended reading:

Husovec, Martin: Holey Cap! CJEU Drills (Yet) Another Hole in the E-Commerce Directive’s Safe Harbors. In Forthcoming, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP). 2017, 15 p. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2843816

Husovec, Martin: Accountable, Not Liable: Injunctions Against Intermediaries. TILEC Discussion Paper No. 2016-012. 2016, 77 p. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2773768

Husovec, Martin: Injunctions Against Innocent Third Parties: Case of Website Blocking (April 27, 2013). 4 JIPITEC, 2, pp. 116-129; Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property & Competition Law Research Paper No. 13-14. Available at: ssrn.com/abstract=2257232

http://www.husovec.eu/

5. EU Digital Single Market III: Cybersecurity

Compulsory study:

Directive (EU) 2022/2555 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the Union, amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 and Directive (EU) 2018/1972, and repealing Directive (EU) 2016/1148 (NIS 2 Directive). Abailable at:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2022/2555

Cumpolsory reading:

Kosseff Jeff: Defining Cybersecurity Law. 103 Iowa L. Rev. 985 (2018). pp. 985-994. Available at: https://ilr.law.uiowa.edu/print/volume-103-issue-3/defining-cybersecurity-law

Recommended reading:

Rolf H. Weber, Evelyne Studer: Cybersecurity in the Internet of Things: Legal aspects. In Computer law & Security review 32 (2016), p. 715–728.

Maurice Schellekens: Car hacking: Navigating the regulatory landscape. In Computer law & security review 32 (2016), p. 307–315. Available at: http://daneshyari.com/article/preview/466377.pdf

https://www.enisa.europa.eu/

VACCA, John R.: Computer and Information Security Handbook. USA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2009, 844 p. ISBN:978-0-12-374354-1

WHITMAN, Michael E. a MATTORD, Herbert J.: Principles of Information security. Boston: Course Technology, 2012, 617 p. ISBN-13: 978-1-111-13821-9

Regulation (EU) 2019/881 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) and on information and communications technology cybersecurity certification and repealing Regulation (EU) No 526/2013 (Cybersecurity Act). Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019R0881

6. EU Digital Single Market IV: Regulation of Artificial Intelligence

Compulsory study:

Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL LAYING DOWN HARMONISED RULES ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ACT) AND AMENDING CERTAIN UNION LEGISLATIVE ACTS Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A52021PC0206

Recommended reading:

BOSTROM, N. - YUDKOWSKY E: The Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence, Draft for Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence, eds. William Ramsey and Keith Frankish 2011 Cambridge University Press, Available at: http://faculty.smcm.edu/acjamieson/s13/artificialintelligence.pdf

ANDERSON, M. - ANDERSON, S.: Machine Ethics, Cambridge University Press. Ai Magazine, Volume 28 number 4, 2016, Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220605213_Machine_Ethics_Creating_an_Ethical_Intelligent_Agent

APFELBAUM, C.: AI Inventorship – the DABUS conundrum, 2021. Available at: https://asserson.co.uk/2021/03/25/ai-inventorship-the-dabus-conundrum/

7. Legal Informatics

Compulsory study:

Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 July 2010 on the framework for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other modes of transport Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02010L0040-20180109

Recommended reading:

Seipel, P.: IT Law in the Framework of Legal Informatics. 2004.: Available at: https://www.scandinavianlaw.se/pdf/47-2.pdf

Dolin, R.: Legal Informatics(Taking the tediousness out of law). Harvard law school. 2021. Available at: https://clp.law.harvard.edu/knowledge-hub/magazine/issues/legal-informatics/legal-informatics/

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: The Path of the Law. 1897. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/33988425/Oliver_Wendell_Holmes_Jr_The_Path_of_the_Law_1897_

8. The European Health Data Space – Legal and Ethical Challenges

Compulsory study:

Proposal for a Regulation on the European Health Data Space (EHDS) (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A52022PC0197

Data Governance Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/868) - Relevant provisions for healthcare data (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/868/oj/eng)

Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) - Relevant provisions for healthcare data (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj/eng

9. Cybercrime

Compulsory study:

Convention on Cybercrime. Available at: https://rm.coe.int/1680081561

Directive 2013/40/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 12 August 2013 on attacks against information systems and replacing Council Framework Decision 2005/222/JHA. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=celex%3A32013L0040

Recommended reading:

Explanatory Report to the Convention on Cybercrime. Council of Europe. Available at: https://rm.coe.int/16800cce5b

10. Electronic Evidence

Compulsory study:

Second Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime on enhanced co-operation and disclosure of electronic evidence. Council of Europe. Available at: https://rm.coe.int/1680a49dab

Regulation (EU) 2023/1543 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 on European Production Orders and European Preservation Orders for electronic evidence in criminal proceedings and for the execution of custodial sentences following criminal proceedings

Directive (EU) 2023/1544 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 laying down harmonised rules on the designation of designated establishments and the appointment of legal representatives for the purpose of gathering electronic evidence in criminal proceedings

Recommended reading:

Explanatory Report to the Second Additional Protocol of the Convention on Cybercrime on enhanced co-operation and disclosure of electronic evidence. Council of Europe. Available at: https://rm.coe.int/1680a49c9d

Good Practice Guide for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence (4.0). Available at: https://www.7safe.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/acpo_guidelines_computer_evidence_v4_web.pdf

Identification and handling of electronic evidence. Hadbook, Document for teachers. ENISA (2013). Available at: https://www.enisa.europa.eu/topics/training-and-exercises/trainings-for-cybersecurity-specialists/online-training-material/documents/identification-and-handling-of-electronic-evidence-handbook

11. Selected Topic

OPEN BOOK EXAM

Date: 13 May 2025

Information about completing the course

Information according to Art. 11 par. 4 of the Study Rules of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Law for groups of all teachers:

doc. JUDr. Jozef Andraško, PhD.

JUDr. Matúš Mesarčík, PhD., LL.M

JUDr. Zoltán Gyurász, PhD.

Mgr. Petra Drážová, PhD.

I. Semester/academic year: summer semester, 2024/2025

II. Study program/degree/form: law/bachelor's/full-time

III. Course title: Introduction to the study of law and legal informatics

IV. Scope of compulsory participation in educational activities

a) Student participation in seminars is mandatory.

b) If the student does not participate in three seminars, his absence is excused.

V. Conditions under which a student can make up for non-participation in seminars:

Only 3 absences are allowed.

VI. Specification of the method of evaluation of study results, including specification of the method and conditions for completing the remedial continous evaluation:

Continuous evaluation – 100 points in total

A) the solution of a practical case requires argumentation through legal regulations and case law, as well as one's own view of the given issue supported by relevant argumentation and theoretical questions (50 points)

B) Elaboration of a legal opinion on a given topic in the field of IT law (50 points)

VII. Dates of continuous evaluation, thematic headings of individual dates of continuous evaluation;

a) Continuous evaluation

a. Elaboration of a legal opinion untill 2.5.2025;

b. Case study - 13.5.2025.

b) Thematic headings: available on the website of the institute (see above).

VIII. Information on alternative options for meeting the conditions of the continuous evaluation, which are not the overall remedial terms of the continuous evaluation according to Art. 13 par. 4 of the study rules of the faculty;

Remedial terms for the continuous evaluation will be determined only for students who did not participate in the regular term of the continuous evaluation and who proves that could not participate in this form of examination for objective and serious reasons.

The remedial term for continuous evaluation will be 20 May 2025.

IX. Information on whether a condition for taking the exam is the achievement of the prescribed level of continuous evaluation or the prescribed scope of compulsory participation in educational activities

X. Additional information

The course syllabus is available on the institute's website (see above).

In Bratislava, 14.2.2025

doc. JUDr. Jozef Andraško, PhD.

Recommended regulation for the assessment

Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act)

Directive 2013/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 August 2013 on attacks against information systems and replacing Council Framework Decision 2005/222/JHA (NIS Directive).

Directive 2013/40/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 12 August 2013 on attacks against information systems and replacing Council Framework Decision 2005/222/JHA.

Second Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime on enhanced co-operation and disclosure of electronic evidence. Council of Europe.

Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on European Production and Preservation Orders for electronic evidence in criminal matters.

Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL laying down harmonised rules on the appointment of legal representatives for the purpose of gathering evidence in criminal proceedings.