Launching the Centre for Internet Law and Policy at Strathclyde

Pangloss is off to London tomorrow to chair the SCL Policy Forum: run don't walk if you still want to get a ticket as I believe there are a few still available! Which will be followed by an (I hope) well earned pre-term week away to foreign climes..

But before I disappear I want to start plugging my NEXT two big events, both of which are designed around launching the new Centre for Internet Law and Policy at Strathclyde, of which I am the Director. Please check out our new website, revamped LLM offerings and exciting news and events pages as well as our Twitter feed at @strathllmit! Small acorns, big oaks perhaps (well it makes a change from apples!) but we do have big plans. Meanwhile, having had a marvellous turn out for our Mark Stephens event, we hope you'll now sign up with equal enthusiasm for these two:

Scottish Launch of Centre for Internet Law and Policy

Scottish Phonehacking Symposium

to be reschedued in 2012 due to industrial action (sigh..)

A cracking panel of Mike Nellis, Lilian Edwards, Mark Poustie (all Strathclyde Law School, representing Internet law and sociology), Rachael Craufurd-Smith (Edinburgh Law School EC media law expert ), David Goldberg (media law consultant and free speech scholar) , Jack Irvine of Mediahouse, former editor of the Scottish Sun and Aamer Anwar, leading Scottish solicitor with extensive experience of the phonehacking scandals, especially most recently in relation to one of his better known clients, Tommy Sheridan.

These parrticipants will informally discuss recent events surrounding phone hacking, privacy, the Murdoch empire, and the possible end of newspapers as we know it, from legal, sociological, journalistic, media studies, Scottish and no doubt other perspectives! Watch our talkative panellists fight the clock as they'll only get 10 minutes each!

No fee but registration required: please contact Linda Nicolson to be put on list and for venue details not yet finalised.

University Launch of Centre for Internet Law and Policy

Tuesday, November 15th 6:00pm , Strathclyde University

Lecture by Alan Winfield, Roboticist, EPSRC Senior Media Fellow and Director of the Science Communication Unit, UWE Bristol and Lilian Edwards, Professor of E-Governance:

"Regulating Robots: Re-Writing Asimov's Three Laws in the Real World?

As robots emerge from the pages of science fiction into a world where they are already commonplace in industry and will soon be equally so on the battlefield and in domestic and public environments like homes, hospitals, schools and shops; where driverless cars already roam Nevada albeit under human escort and Japanese elderly are comforted by robot seals, hard legal questions are emerging which need answers soon or better still, now. Who is responsible for a robot? What happens to our privacy when robots share our homes? Do we need Asimov's Three Laws in real life?

Tea and coffee from 5.30pm, drinks reception after.

No fee but registration required: please contact Linda Nicolson to be put on list and for full venue details not yet finalised.

And yes, real blogging will resume now the summer is over :-)

An Interview with Mark Stephens at Strathclyde university!

“In Conversation with Mark Stephens”

Mark Stephens, CBE

Partner at Finers Stephens Innocent

The recent controversy surrounding Wikileaks and Julian Assange has raised many questions about freedom of information and the use of European arrest warrants. Mr Assange has been described as both a “hi-tech terrorist” and “beacon of information freedom” and his cases have wide ranging implications within the law and society as a whole.

In this unique ‘conversation’, Mark Stephens, partner at Finers Stephens Innocent, will be discussing a wide variety of topics including the law surrounding freedom of information and the European arrest warrant.

A specialist in international comparative media law and regulation, Mark Stephens has represented clients throughout the world. Described by the ‘Law Society Gazette’ as “the patron solicitor of previously lost causes”, it is this reputation for creativity with law that leads clients to his door.

The conversation with Mark Stephens will be chaired by Professor Peter Watson, Solicitor Advocate.

Date: Thursday 1 September 2011 at 6.00pm

Venue: Court/Senate Suite, Collins Building

Richmond Street, Glasgow

Strathclyde University

Glasgow

Tea/Coffee available from 5.30pm For more details: www.law.ac.uk

Reception 7.30pm – 8.00pm RSVP: carol.hutton@strath.ac.uk, 0141 548 3481

New Job!

Hello from the Internet Governance Forum in Vilnius!

More of that when it kicks off properly tomorrow, but for now Pangloss is delighted to announce that from 1 January 2011, she will be taking up a new post as Chair of E-Governance at Strathclyde University in Glasgow.

Although she is sad to say goodbye to Sheffield, this is not only a homecoming to Scotland but also something of a dream job: a "research leadership" John Anderson Chair where for the first three years at least, the job is dedicated to forging cross-university and external interdisciplinary links to build IT-related research at Strathclyde.

I will also be taking over, with existing colleagues, charge of Strathclyde's already world-leading LLM and distance learning programmes in IT and Telecoms law: watch this space as we plan to expand, rebrand and add new modules to these already well-known enterprises.

I will also be actively seeking to build a community of PhDs and postdocs in IT law-related areas and looking for interesting new collaborators to build up funded and sponsored research . If you are interested in any of this, do let me know! Themes especially relevant to Strathclyde are likely to include Human Rights and the Internet, Internet Governance, Cyber Crime and Cyber Security, and The Mobile and Next Generation Internet (eg the Semantic Web and Robotics).

See culture - see IT - see Strathclyde! where the future's miles better :-)