Courses

This course introduces students to various topics within the broader field of internet law. Although the internet has become central to many aspects of both public and private life, no single body of law comprehensively regulates the internet in the United States. Instead, internet policy borrows from and presents unique challenges in many doctrinal areas that pre-date the internet, including telecommunications, jurisdiction, trespass, fraud, intellectual property, torts, privacy, and speech. This course will explore evolving approaches in these areas as well as internet-specific legislation around domain names, content moderation, spam, and social media. The objective of the course is to analyze these legal developments in their technical, historical, and international contexts. Technical knowledge is not required, but the course will provide a basic overview of various foundational internet technologies, including networking, domain names, and encryption, so that students from all backgrounds can better understand current internet policy debates.