CyberLaw Research Unit
The CyberLaw Research Unit develops, co-ordinates and pursues research and study into the impacts of information technologies upon legal systems, legal professions and legal science.
The unit is formally a part of the Centre for International Governance.
Core work
The following activities form our core work.
- Research into Cyberlaw, including our innovative Court21 project
- Learning and teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels
- The supervision of research postgraduate students
- Networking and dissemination of our work
Cyberlaw
Cyberlaw refers to the legal issues that arise within cyberspace. It relates to the interaction of law with information communications technologies and computer mediated communications systems.
Cyberspace possesses some unique qualities that challenge our existing laws. Such qualities are its disregard for jurisdictional boundaries and its ability to handle large volumes of traffic instantaneously. Cyberspace is also open to participation and allows for anonymity of members of the virtual community.
Consequently, many of existing models of legal regulation are difficult to apply in the relatively new medium of cyberspace.
Some old laws simply do not apply any more and we need to develop new laws. Again, the special qualities of cyberspace create such serious problems for the applications of law to the point that the focus of the debate shifts from legal regulation to governance.
So cyberlaw exists at the cutting edge of law, and challenges the ability of existing law to achieve its goals. In this sense, the 'law' in Cyberlaw is a much broader concept. It is "law in action" as opposed to "law in books": it applies to situations where Law cannot cope.
Study with us
We invite applications from students wishing to pursue research into all aspects of CyberLaw, such as cyber/computer crime, governance of the Internet, human rights and the Internet, privacy and surveillance, Internet censorship, management of domain names, and e-commerce related matters.