Global Technology Law and Policy: Spring 2024 (CML3351)

Global Technology Law and Policy is an intensive seminar that is a collective initiative of the University of Ottawa, the University of Haifa, and Bocconi University in Milan with a selection of students from each university. This year’s course will take place in person in Ottawa and Haifa. The course focus for the year will be on a range of technology law and policy issues including AI rules, cyber-security, privacy and platform regulation.

Classes will feature lectures, group work, and guest lecturers. Students will also be assigned to one of five groups for a group presentation during the course.

Thanks to Canadian Friends of Haifa University, the Hugh Verrier Rule of Law Research and Education Development Fund, and Schwartz-Reisman Foundation for their support for this course.

Tentative Course Schedule (as of April 26, 2024, remains subject to change)

April 30: Ottawa

14:00 – 17:00 – Room FTX 359

• Intro to each other and the course
• Geist lecture on Canadian digital policy
• Packin lecture

Readings/Podcasts:

•  “Science For Policy To Protect Children In Cyberspace”, Science (March 31, 2023) with Michal Gilad, Diana H. Fishbein, and Gideon Nave. – https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-1103/full
• “Financial Inclusion Gone Wrong? Securities and Cryptoassets Trading for Children,” Hastings Law Journal (2023) – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3862502
• Nizan Geslevich Packin, The Nexus of Gaming and NFTs: A Deep Dive Into the Future of Digital Interaction, in The Cambridge Handbook on Law and Policy for NFTs (Nizan Geslevich Packin ed., forthcoming) – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4787912
• The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 189: The Year in Canadian Digital Law and Policy and What Lies Ahead in 2024
• Geist, Reshaping Canada’s Broadcasting Act: A Solution in Search of a Problem? in Bayer et al., (eds), Perspectives on Platform Regulation, (Baden Baden, Nomos) 291-327  

May 1: Ottawa

10:00 – 12:15, Room FTX 359

• Online Harms
  • Geist lecture on Bill C-63
• Jacob Glick, Head of Public Policy, Amazon Canada

13:30 – 16:00 – Senate of Canada, 2 Rideau Street

• Visit to the Senate of Canada
• Meeting with Senator Leo Housakos

18:00: Reception at Michael Geist’s house

Readings/Podcasts:

• Geist, My First Take on the Online Harms Act: Worst of 2021 Plan Now Gone But Digital Safety Commission Regulatory Power a Huge Concern
• The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 195: Vivek Krishnamurthy on What You Need to Know About the Online Harms Act

May 2: Ottawa

10:45 – 12:30

• Visit to the Supreme Court of Canada, meeting with SCC Justice Sheilah Martin, 301 Wellington Ave.

14:00 – 16:30, Room FTX 359

• Platform regulation panel: Jeanette Patel, Google and Steve de Eyre, TikTok
• Manderieux lecture: AI and IP

17:30 – Reception for course participants and alumni, FSS Building, Room 4007

May 3: Ottawa

10:00 – 12:00, Room FTX 359

• Group #1 presentation – “Be Right Back”
  • Background readings:
    • Asa Fitch, Could AI Keep People ‘Alive’ After Death?, WSJ (July 3, 2021).
    • Mitchell Clark, The engineer who claimed a Google AI is sentient has been fired after he was suspended in June (Jul 22, 2022).
    • Ori Freiman & Nizan Geslevich Packin, Artificial intelligence products cannot be moral agents, Toronto Star (August 7, 2022).
    • Kevin Roose, A Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled, N.Y. Times (Feb. 16, 2023).
    • Josh Taylor and Christopher Knaus, Facebook To Limit Ads Children See After Revelations Australian Alcohol Companies Can Reach Teens, The Guardian (July 27, 2021).
    • Caria L. Reyes, Autonomous Corporate Personhood, 96 Wash. L. Rev. 1453 (2021).
• AI and Legal Personhood
  • Packin lecture 

Readings:

Jasper Doomen, The Artificial Intelligence Entity as a Legal Person, 32 Info. & Commc’ns Tech. L. 3 (2023), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13600834.2023.2196827.

13:30 – 16:00, Room FTX 359

• Group #2 presentation – “Crocodile”
  • Background readings:
    • Warren & Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, 4 Harvard Law Review 193 (Dec. 15, 1890).
    • Danielle Keats Citron & Daniel J. Solove, Privacy Harms, 102 B.U. L. REV. (2022).
    • Langdon Winner, Do Artifacts Have Politics?, Daedalus, 109:1, Modern Technology: Problem or Opportunity? (Winter, 1980) 121-136.
    • Douglas Heller & Michael DeLong, Watch Where You’re Going: What’s Needed to Make Auto Insurance Telematics Work for Consumers, Consumer Federation of America (May 26, 2021).
    • Jack Nicas, The Police Can Probably Break Into Your Phone, NYT (Oct, 21, 2020).
    • Alyssa Foote, Should Cops Use Family Tree Forensics? Maryland Isn’t So Sure, Wired.
• Guest Lecture from David Lametti, former Minister of Justice
• NYC Orientation

 

May 4 and 5: Travel to New York

May 6: New York

12:00 – 15:00, Room TBD, Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave

• AI / Automation, Consumers and Regulation
  • Packin Lecture
  • Geist lecture 
  • Guest lecture: Sharon Weisman guest lecture: AI in Trademarks and Licensing — the Next Frontier

17:30:  Visit to 911 Museum 

Readings/Podcasts:

• “Paywalling Humans” (Forthcoming: 2024 Theoretical Inquiries in Law) – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4800801

•  “Consumer Finance and AI: The Death of Second Opinions?,” 22 N.Y.U. Journal Legislation & Public Policy 319 (2020) — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3361639
• The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 183: Andres Guadamuz on the Battle Over Copyright and Generative AI
• Scassa, AIDA Evolving: A Consideration of Proposed Amendments to Canada’s Bill to Enact an AI and Data Act

May 7:  New York

10:00-13:00, Room TBD, Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave

• Group #3 presentation – Shut Up and Dance
  • Background readings:
    • • Watch: Why The U.S. Can’t Stop Cyber Attacks (2021) | CNBC.
      • Watch: The Digital Threat To Nations | Secret Wars (2020) | CNA documentary.
      • Rahul Telang, Could Ransomware Attacks Ultimately Benefit Consumers?, Harvard business Review (Aug. 02, 2021).
      • Daniel Schiappa, With Ransomware Costs On The Rise, Organizations Must Be More Proactive, Forbes (Jul 13, 2021).
      • Scott R. Peppet, Unraveling Privacy: The Personal Prospectus and the Threat of a Full-Disclosure Future, 105 Nw. U. Law Rev. 1153-61, 1166-1176 (2011).
      • Greg Bensinger, The Assault on Our Privacy Is Being Conducted in Private, NYT, (July 13, 2021).
      • Bruce Schneier, Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and the Internet of Things, N.Y. Mag. (Jan. 27, 2017).
      • Jonathan Mayer, Government Hacking, 127 Yale L.J. 570 (2018) (pages 574-589).
• Emerging Technologies and Compliance
  • Packin Lecture

16:00 – 17:30: Visit to NY law firm Pearl Cohen, Times Square Tower, 19th Floor

Readings:

• “RegTech, Compliance and Technology Judgment Rule”, Chicago-Kent Law Review Symposium 2018 (2018) – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3043021

May 8:  New York

10:00 – 13:00, Room TBD, Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave

• Group #4 presentation – Hated in the Nation
  • Background readings:
    • • Watch: Who “Invented” The #Hashtag And How It Changed Social Media,
      • Howard, Philip N. and Duffy, Aiden and Freelon, Deen and Hussain, M.M. and Mari, Will and Maziad, Marwa, Opening Closed Regimes: What Was the Role of Social Media During the Arab Spring? (2011).
      • Karsten Müller and Carlo Schwarz, From Hashtag to Hate Crime: Twitter and Anti-Minority Sentiment (July 24, 2020).
      • Yochai Benkler, We Cannot Trust Our Government, So We Must Trust The Technology, The Guardian (Feb. 26, 2016).
• Platform regulation
  • Geist Lecture

20:00: McKinsey & Company reception, 3 World Trade Center, 175 Greenwich Street

Readings/Podcasts:

• Belloso, The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA): A Competition Hand in a Regulatory Glove
• Nunziata, The Digital Services Act and the Brussels Effect on Platform Content Moderation

May 9: New York

10:00 – 13:00, Room TBD, Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave

• Group #5 presentation – Hang the DJ
  • Background readings:
    • • Nizan Geslevich Packin, Consumer Finance and AI: The Death of Second Opinions?, 22 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 101 (2020).
      • Frank Pasquale and Gianclaudio Malgieri, If You Don’t Trust A.I. Yet, You’re Not Wrong, NYT (July 30, 2021).
      • Maxwell Zeff, This Guy Used ChatGPT to Talk to 5,000 Women on Tinder and Met His Wife, Gizmodo (Feb. 7, 2024).
      • WATCH THIS VIDEO — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzFI9rgwfU
      • Michael Geist, Not Ready for Prime Time: Why Bill C-11 Leaves the Door Open to CRTC Regulation of User Generated Content.
      • Derek E. Bambauer, Michael Risch, Worse Than Human?, 53 Ariz. St. L.J. 1091, 1091 (2021).
• Gad Weiss guest lecture: Innovation or Hallucination? On AI Safety and Startup Governance

May 10: New York

10:00-13:00, Room TBD, Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave

 

Groups for Presentations/Book Reports