Law 452A – Fall Term 2003

Information Law – 3 credits

http://publish.uwo.ca/~strosow/law452A/law452A.htm

Instructor: Dr. Samuel E. Trosow

27 Law Building x82282

275D Middlesex College x88498

strosow@uwo.ca

Class Meetings: Thursday, 2-4:50 p.m.

Office Hours:

27 Law Building: Thursday 11am-12
275 D Middlesex : Monday 11am-12, Tuesday 11am-12
and by appointment

Description: This developing area of the law deals with the legal aspects of the relationship between society and information technology. The course focuses on areas of public and private law concerned with the regulation of computer systems as well as the development, distribution and use of computer products and services.

Information law is an area of law in which attempts are being made to cope with rapidly changing conditions in our society. This course will consider these changes (including the implications of new technology and globalization) for information transfer in our society. We will look in depth at the responses made by different jurisdictions to these changes with an emphasis on a Canadian perspective. We will examine recent developments in areas of law such as privacy, access to information, intellectual property, as well as relevant developments in constitutional, criminal, contract and tort law, which have grappled with information-related issues. We will also consider attempts to create systematic national and international information policies in these areas and discuss future possibilities.

Readings:                   Drapeau & Racicot, Federal Access to Information and Privacy
                                                Legislation Annotated 2003 (Carswell)
                                   Supplemental Readings: (TBA)

Assessment:
                                    Class Participation (10%)

Research memo (20%)

Development of series of written assignments culminating in a written paper for a total of (70%)

(This paper will satisfy the Faculty of Law writing requirement and may also satisfy the Information and Technology Law area of concentration writing requirement.)

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Tentative Schedule:

Week 1 (September 4^rd): Course Introduction

Week 2 (September 11^th): Access to Information I

• Background & History
• Overview of Federal Access to Information Act
• Purpose of Act (s. 2)
• Definitions (s. 3)
• Right of Access (s. 4, Extension Order #1)
• Requests for Access (s. 6)

Week 3 (September 17th): Access to Information II

• Reply notice when access requested (s. 7)
• Transfer of request (s. 8)
• Extension of time limits (s. 9)
• Notice where access refused (s. 10)
• Fees (s. 11)
• Giving access to records (s. 12)
• AIA Exceptions (ss 13-18, 21-26 )
  

Week 4 (September 25^th): Access to Information III

• Exceptions (cont'd) (ss 19-20)
  
• Inapplicability of Act (ss. 68-69)
  

Week 5 (October 2nd^t): Access to Information IV

• Third Party Intervention (ss. 27, 28, 29)
• Complaints (ss. 30, 31)
• Investigations (ss. 32-37)
• Reporting requirements (ss. 38-40, 72)
• Review by Federal Court (ss. 41-53)
• Office of the Information Commissioner (ss. 54-66)
• Offenses (ss. 67, 67.1)
• Research memo assigned (tentative)

Week 6 (October 9^th):

• Comparison to selected Provincial statutes and to US FOIA
• Tension between Access and Privacy legislation (Dagg)

Week 7 (October 16^th): Privacy

• Overview of Privacy
• Federal Privacy Act
• Research Memo due (tentative)

Week 8 (October 23^nd): Privacy II

• EU Data Protection Directive
• CSA Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information (PIPEDA Schedule I)
• PIPEDA (Part I, Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector)
• Problem statement / Introduction to paper due

Week 9 (October 30^th): Privacy III

• PIPEDA (continued)
• Other Privacy Legislation (federal and provincial)
• Privacy Legislation in the US

Week 10 (November 6^th): Privacy IV

• Tort Liability for Invasion of Privacy
• Criminal Code Provisions for Invasion of Privacy (Protection of Privacy Act, Part VI of Criminal Code, ss. 183, et. seq.)
• Court Records and publication bans
• Extended paper outline and preliminary bibliography due

Week 11 (November 13^th):

• Selected Issues in Intellectual Freedom & Censorship

Week 12 (November 20^th):

• Selected Intellectual Property Issues

• Rough Draft papers due

Week 13 (November 27^th):

• Emerging International Issues

Week 14 (December 4tg):

• Open & Course Wrap-up

• Course papers due

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Reserve Readings:

• McNairn & Woodbury, Government Information: Access and Privacy [KF5753.M36]
• McIsaac, et. al., The Law of Privacy in Canada [KF5753.M356]
• Platt, et. al., Privacy Law in the Private Sector : An Annotation of the Legislation in Canada [KF5753.P53]
• Perrin, et. al., The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act: An Annotated Guide [KF4483.C524P46 2001]
• Annotated Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Acts. [KF5753.A9755 1998]

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Selected Web Resources:

Federal Access to Information Act

· Access to Information Act (R.S. 1985, c. A-1) http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/A-1/

· Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada http://www.infocom.gc.ca/menu-e.asp

· Searchable database of access requests http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/asroberts/foi/track/

Federal Privacy Legislation

· Privacy Act (R.S. 1985, c. P-21) http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-21/

· Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (2000, c. 5 ) http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-8.6

· Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada http://www.privcom.gc.ca/index_e.asp

Provincial Legislation

· Directory of Provincial Privacy Legislation: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/information/comms_e.asp

· Alberta Information & Privacy Commissioner: http://www.oipc.ab.ca

· British Columbia Information & Privacy Commissioner: http://www.oipc.bc.ca/

· Nova Scotia Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Review Office: http://www.gov.ns.ca/foiro/

· Ontario Information & Privacy Commissioner: http://www.ipc.on.ca/

· Quebec: Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec: http://www.cai.gouv.qc.ca/

Foreign Commissioners

· Australia Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner: http://www.privacy.gov.au/

· France - Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés: http://www.cnil.fr/

· Ireland Data Protection Commissioner: http://www.dataprivacy.ie/

· New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner: http://www.privacy.org.nz/

· UK Information Commissioner: http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/

Organizational Websites

· Canada Access and Privacy Association (CAPA): http://www.capa.ca/

· Center for Democratic Technology (CDT): http://www.cdt.org/

· Canadian Marketing Association (Regulatory Affairs):
http://www.the-cma.org/privacy/regulatory.cfm

· Direct Marketing Association (DMA): http://www.the-dma.org/

· Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC): http://www.epic.org/

· Open Government Canada: http://www.opengovernmentcanada.org/

· Privacy.org: http://www.privacy.org/

· Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: http://www.privacyrights.org/

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 revised Sept. 11, 2003 (SET)