INFORMATION LAW (2) or (3) (CIP160)

Professors Dan Hunter and Richard Sherwin

Explores how new forms of information and information technology are profoundly influencing legal doctrine, legal practice, and democratic institutions generally, mapping a broad range of topics associated with law’s impact on, and its continuing adaptation to, the electronic production, manipulation, storage, and dissemination of information. The course investigates what we mean by "information"; discusses issues of control and access, specifically the appropriate balance between adequate protections of confidential information and its sources and punitive measures for unauthorized appropriation; examines several topics and legal doctrines already transformed by the digital revolution; addresses the impact of new forms of information and information technology on how law is practiced in the courtroom, the law office, and the court of public opinion; and concludes by exploring the impact of new communication technologies on self-governance and the evolving meaning of freedom, social justice, and democracy in a highly networked information economy.