Course Overview

Course Title: Internet Law and Ethics

Relevant SDGs:  Goal 9

Credit(s): 2 credits

Course Description:

The development of the Internet and, more recently, Internet-based applications such as Facebook, Kaixin Wang, Weibo, Twitter, Whatsapp, Wechat, Spotify, Uber, Didi Taxi, Airbnb have generated new types of communications between individuals across the globe. The rise of the internet has disrupted many aspects of our society, including law. Courts, policymakers, and law enforcement officials around the globe are struggling to resolve the clashes, both by adapting existing legal remedies and by developing new ones. This course will examine the effect of the internet on varied areas of legal doctrine, including intellectual property, technology related ethics, privacy, jurisdiction, contract, and collective enforcement of consumer protection in the context of digital economy. It also considers specialized internet regulation such as intermediary liability regimes, platform regulation, new challenges for the policymaking regarding the sharing economy. This course will explore how China (and for a comparative law analysis also the United States, European Union, and other countries) are currently responding to the new challenges and are likely to respond in the coming years. The course will be of interest to students who are interested or specialized in IP and related areas, those who anticipate working in digital industries, or anyone who finds online technology fascinating.

Academic Team

PI:

• Zhang Chenguo(张陈果), Professor, Koguan School of Law, zhangcg25@gmail.com

Collaborators:

• Jyh-An Lee, Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, jalee@cuhk.edu.hk

What skills will students get?

1. Help students connect with the development of the international Internet and legal regulations on it
2. Lead students to apply learned legal paradigms to research emerging issues
3. Enhance students' case study ability
4. Enhancing students' organizational skills and speech skills

Mode of Teaching

Case Study & Group Report

Grading

1. Class discussion: 20 points
2. Course project: 80 points

Course-specific Restrictions

None.

Class Schedule

Instructors

Zhang Chenguo

Zhang Chenguo is a professor at Koguan School of Law of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Shanghai Eastern Scholar. Her main research areas are civil and commercial law and civil procedure law, intellectual property law and competition law, information technology law and international dispute resolution. Her writings can be found in Chinese and Foreign Law, Global Legal Review, Politics and Law, Contemporary Law, Tsinghua Law, Guangming Daily, The China Quarterly, Journal of World Trade, Computer Law and Security Review, European Business Organization Law Review, Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, ZUM (German Copyright Law and Media Law, GRUR Int.). She has published over thirty papers in Chinese, English, and German, with one English and German monograph each. She has also translated several works, and some related papers have been reprinted by Xinhua Digest.

Jyh-An Lee

Jyh-An Lee is a Professor and the Executive Director of the Centre for Legal Innovation and Digital Society (CLINDS) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Faculty of Law. He has been a faculty member of the CUHK EMBA program since 2018. Professor Lee also coaches the New Ventures Legal Team (NVLT), a clinical support group collaborating with CUHK’s Pre-Incubation Centre for startup companies. Professor Lee has been featured on ABC News, BBC News, Bloomberg News, Financial Times, Fortune, and South China Morning Post as an expert on intellectual property and Internet law. He has authored four monographs and over sixty papers, and his works have been cited by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the UK High Court of Justice, the US International Trade Commission, and the European Union (in a WTO dispute-settlement case).

Course Contact

Zhang Chenguo: zhangcg25@gmail.com