Privacy, Data and Surveillance Law (LAWS0338)

This course critically examines how law regulates the growing use of data by governments and companies, and the impact this law has on the balance between competing rights and interests and power dynamics in a digitised society.  

In a connected world, almost all of our daily interactions generate data. This data can reveal sensitive or private facts about a person, significantly reconfigure power relations, or even be used to coerce and manipulate. The primary legal response to this social and technological change has been the adoption of data protection, or informational privacy, laws nationally and internationally. These laws also act as a first line of defence for human rights in a digital age. Yet, while these laws grow in number and significance, key questions remain about their conceptual foundations and practical impact. This course provides participants with a solid grounding in informational privacy data protection and surveillance law, putting the law in its socio-technical context. Although the primary focus will be on EU and UK law, the course will engage with foundational issues equipping participants with the skills and understanding to engage with data privacy laws globally. No prior technological knowledge or knowledge of EU Law is required for this module.

Given the fast-moving nature of the subject, the precise content of this module is subject to change. An indicative set of topics are:

Core Elements of Data Protection and Privacy Law:

• History and theoretical approaches to privacy and data protection

• The fundamentals of data protection frameworks

• Informational Rights, including the ‘Right to be Forgotten’

• The Legal Regulation of International Data Flows  

Data Protection, Privacy and Surveillance Law in Action:

• Online tracking, social networks and platform power

• Cryptography and the law

• The use of data for national security purposes

• Algorithmic policing

• The Surveilled Student

Preliminery Reading

• Neil Richards, The Dangers of Surveillance, 126 Harvard Law Review 1934 (2013)

• Orla Lynskey, The Foundations of EU Data Protection Law (OUP 2015)Julie E Cohen, ‘Turning Privacy Inside Out’ (2019) 20 Theoretical Inquiries in Law. 

• Salome Viljoen, ‘A Relational Theory of Data Governance’ (2021) 131 Yale Law Journal.

• Eleni Kosta, Surveilling Masses and Unveiling Human Rights — Uneasy Choices for the Strasbourg Court (Inaugural Lecture, Tilburg Law School Research Paper No. 2018-10).

Key information