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Course

Electronic Commerce Law - LAWS8044

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Kensington Campus

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2

Enrolment Requirements:

Academic Program must be 9231 or 5231 or 9220 or 5750 or 9200 or 5740 or 9210 or 9230 or 9214 or 5214.

Excluded: JURD7344, LEGT2771, LEGT3771, LEGT5421

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

This course examines how and to what extent law (and other sources of regulation) controls the mechanisms which facilitate electronic commerce. The course considers the regulation of electronic commerce from the point of view of a relatively broad range of legal topic areas, from concepts of private international law in the assumption of jurisdiction over online transactions, to the regulatory and contractual framework for electronic commerce, to issues such as domain name regulation, online consumer protection, payment systems, e-security and cybercrime. Throughout the course, various themes recur, such as: the role of technology in facilitating electronic transactions and shaping appropriate laws; self-regulatory and co-regulatory models; the emergence of international standards; and problems of jurisdiction and regulatory ‘arbitrage’.


LLM Specialisations

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

  • To examine the role of technology in facilitating electronic transactions and shaping appropriate laws
  • To consider the value of self-regulatory and co-regulatory models in regulating electronic commerce
  • To examine the emergence of international standards in ecommerce law
  • To consider problems of jurisdiction and regulatory "arbitrage" in electronic commerce law

Main Topics

  • Electronic Commerce regulatory structure and sources of law
  • Electronic Commerce Jurisdiction 1 - The Hague Convention and other International agreements
  • Electronic Commerce Jurisdiction 2 - Case law
  • Online contract formation 1 - the Electronic Transactions Act
  • Online contract formation 2 - common law and international instruments
  • Electronic authentication of individuals, organisations and objects (and their attributes)
  • International case study - Ecommerce legal infrastructure in ASEAN
  • Online dispute resolution
  • Online business conduct - Codes of conduct and regulations
  • Cyber-crime
  • Online payment systems and transactions
  • Security and the determination of liability for unauthorised access and transactions

Assessment

Class participation 10%
Briefing note  2,500 words 20%
Research essay 5,000 words 70%
 

Course Texts

Prescribed
None

Recommended
Recommended textbooks and resources:
•Akindemowo, O, Information Technology Law in Australia (LBC, 2001 (2nd ed))
•Fitzgerald, A et al, CyberLaw (Butterworths, 2002)
•Fitzgerald, A et al (eds), Going Digital 2000: Legal Issues for Electronic Commerce, Software and the Internet (Prospect Publishing, 2000)
•Fitzgerald, B et al, Internet and e-Commerce Law - Technology, Law and Policy (Thomson, 2007)
•Lawrence, A, The Law of Ecommerce (LexisNexis, 2003 (looseleaf))
•Lim, YF, Cyberspace Law: Commentaries and Materials (OUP, 2007 (2nd ed))
•Smith, G, Internet Law and Regulation (Sweet & Maxwell, 2002 (3rd ed))
•Online course materials

Resources

Please refer to course outline.
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Study Levels

Undergraduate Study Postgraudate Study Postgraduate Research Study Non-Award Study

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