Innovation and the Law: How Technology Changes the Legal System

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course aims to give the students a general overview of the core legal institutions, while introducing the students to the main legal problems attached to the new technologies. The reading assignments and the classroom discussions will illustrate how technology changes traditional legal concepts and the way in which the legal rules are applied. A basic introduction to contracts, property, torts from a comparative perspective will be followed by an explanation of the relevant technologies and their implications in the legal understanding of the core legal topics.

In addition, the course will focus on the current trends of the harmonization process in order to give a common response to technology challenges providing a general overview of the problems arising from the interaction between technology and the law. The general legal analysis of contracts, torts and property will be applied to the challenges posed by smart and relational contracts, the interaction between big data and competition law, the internet of things and the application of products liability and insurance to fully automated devices. Sharing and collaborative economy formulas will also be analyzed in the course.