A Policy Agenda for Legal Education and Training and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Case of England and Wales

While the full impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution remains uncertain, it is by now generally accepted that highly intelligent technologies and their applications – such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, digitialisation, and big Data – will continue to fundamentally transform all aspects of our occupational and personal lives. Yet, in the realm of higher education policy and specifically with regard to non-STEM disciplines like law, thorough-going engagement with this most recent wave of technological development remains lacking. It is the aim of this article to set a policy agenda for legal education and training that is sensitive to the opportunities and potential negative outfall of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (now exacerbated by COVID-19), while also taking into consideration the distinctive nature of legal education and training in England and Wales. Set against the higher education policy landscape of England and Wales, a number of concrete recommendations are made for bringing legal education and training into the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These include, for example, a call for the radical transformation of the traditional, linear, and monodisciplinary LLB degree, addressing current and projected skills gaps and skills shortages by way of, inter alia, curriculum reform, and working towards greater mobility of law graduates between different legal jurisdictions and also within one jurisdiction but amongst different roles. These changes are necessary as legal education and training in England and Wales currently leave law graduates ill-equipped for the future labour market and do not adequately value and build on the job-tasks that legal professionals uniquely supply.

Smart meters’ roll out, solutions in favour of a trust enhancing law in the EU

The article briefly describes the smart meters technology in the electricity field, its potentials and risks in terms of privacy and data protection, which could undermine the trust of customers. Then, the article delineates the EU legal framework that applies to the technology. A critical assessment of the latter follows, with the identification of some flaws. The focus shifts subsequently to the national level of legislation, when the Flemish laws on the matter are analysed. A different part is dedicated to the role that some technologies could have to reduce the risks and implement privacy. In conclusion, some recommendations are proposed to make the law more prone to enhance trust by the customers.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (of data): navigating the temptations of the post-COVID hybrid campus

<div class="WordSection1"><p>For several years, universities and colleges have been exploring the potential use of activity data – already gathered by their digital systems – to improve their processes. Learning processes were the first to adopt these techniques, with a wide range of “learning analytics” services already in use. Similar approaches to curriculum development and effective use of campus spaces are also being explored. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised the question of whether infection prevention and support processes might also be data-enhanced. The adoption of a hybrid teaching mode by many institutions – where students are present on campus, but some face-to-face activities move online – is likely to increase the amount of data available. However this comes at a time of high stress, for both students and staff, when many of the concerns that had already been raised about “analytics” – over-simplification, lack of contextual awareness, dataveillance and a possible reaction against technology – are particularly salient. Emergency laws may provide less guidance. This paper suggests four questions – Will it Help? Will it Work? Will it Comfort? and Will it Fly? – as a framework for discussing data-enhanced processes among campus communities. Five “concept cars” are used to illustrate how these questions can be used to explore ideas and identify those likely to be widely accepted. If a proposed use of data cannot achieve consensus and trust there is unlikely to be willing compliance with its data collection or advice.</p></div>

Privacy as Public Good – A Comparative Assessment of the Challenge for CoronApps in Latin America

<p> </p><p>Much of the reporting of the tracing apps, tracking programmes, and privacy concerns during the developmental processes and the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic have focussed on pitting digital rights and privacy against public health interests. Undoubtedly, there is best practice in establishing a tracing app to respond to Covid-19 while the work of civil society and NGOs in scrutinising the apps in various nations is vitally important and provides the core analysis of the scope of the data to be collated and retained. The holding to account of tracing systems and governments in utilising technology that is by its very nature invasive is vital in protecting digital rights. In times of crisis in particular, accountability is incredibly important to ensure that digital rights are not pushed aside in light of other concerns.</p><p>To balance digital rights and privacy, and public health, accountability and transparency are essential – the scrutiny of the track and trace systems in Germany, the UK, and Colombia is therefore undertaken in this paper, which questions from interdisciplinary perspectives the scrutiny, accountability, and privacy concerns in each nation’s app before offering some conclusions and recommendations for the improvement and development of privacy and digital rights in Latin America. The conclusions offered here highlight good practice and outline the need for a holistic consideration of tracing systems, rather than advocating for a ‘one size fits all approach’ by positioning privacy as a public good, rather than an opponent of technological tracing systems.</p>

‘World of Warcraft is My Home From Home’: An Argument for the Protection of Virtual Worlds

<p>Virtual worlds have taken on a renewed significance in our contemporary world of social distancing and isolation. Virtual worlds exist independently of the physical world yet allow individuals a degree of verisimilitude of the physical world; including attachment to that world and others in it. This phenomenon is present in Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games which are the primary focus of this work. How the law ought to approach such virtual worlds has been contested since the early days of the internet. Much of the literature in the area looks to utilise established areas of law such as property law, contract law, or intellectual property to solve the novel problems created by virtual worlds. It is perhaps understandable that scholars and judges would opt for established areas of law in light of their knowledge and trust in the same. This traditional approach understands virtual worlds and the items therein as the property of the developer thereby eroding users’ trust in the long term existence of virtual worlds. This article takes a novel and previously unexplored view as to how virtual worlds should be protected in light of the attachment an individual may feel towards virtual worlds irrespective of ownership. It will be established that this attachment is akin to the connection a person may feel towards their home in the physical world. This paper utilises these similarities to question why legal protections are not afforded to individuals and the virtual worlds to which they are connected. In arguing to secure this protection the article draws inspiration from the community empowerment principles of the Localism Act 2011 which allows for land and buildings to be protected as Assets of Community Value.</p>

Space4Health: A Place for Satellite Applications and Technology in the UK COVID-19 Governance Framework

Now that society is firmly planted within the ‘new normal’ of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is time for the United Kingdom to assess where it stands regarding the juxtaposition between technology and governance. As COVID-19 develops within the UK, it is time to implement strategies that call for a cross-sectoral approach in order to strengthen the work that is done to combat the virus and make society safe and secure. One way in which this can be done is through the continued and more substantial use of space-enabled technologies and their data-driven outputs. Space-enabled technologies refers to activities of satellite communications, satellite navigations, remote sensing, and Earth Observation (EO). This research will discuss how space-enabled technologies can support global health issues as well as the current utilisation in the UK. It will also discuss the status quo of the UK COVID-19 governance framework and provide recommendations on how this framework could better utilise space-enabled technologies especially paired with a risk governance framework.