Year: 2021
Electronic Evidence and Electronic Signatures
The 5th edition of Electronic Evidence and Electronic Signatures updates this well-established practitioner text. Stephen Mason and Daniel Seng have brought together a team of experts in the field to provide an exhaustive treatment of electronic evidence and electronic signatures. This edition continues to follow the tradition in English evidence text books by basing the […]
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Smart doorbells: data protection concerns
As more and more everyday products are produced with internet connectivity – whether it actually improves functionality or is more of a gimmick – there are increased concerns regarding cybersecurity and data protection. The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to both these WiFi-enabled goods and the wider concept of having everything connected to the internet […]
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Court judgments to be publicly available from The National Archives
As announced in June 2021, from April 2022 significant court judgments past and present from the High Court, the Court of Appeal, the Crown Court, the House of Lords, the Supreme Court, the Privy Council, and other courts and tribunals, will be available as public records from The National Archives (TNA). At present, there are […]
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The Internet for Lawyers (reprise)
I have been writing about the internet for lawyers since 1995 when it first entered the public consciousness and the first few legal websites were born. These early writings, and many since, are published on my blog Binary Law. In 2007 I joined Delia Venables editing the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers, launching the Newsletter online […]
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ICLR.4 and the genie in the bottle
Some years ago the editor of this Newsletter complained of the over-use of the description “artificial intelligence” in legal products: “hyping AI is unhelpful”, he said. “AI is just what computers do.” And he’s not alone in expressing scepticism about the often extravagant claims of AI. Much of the mystique around it stems from simple […]
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GDPR fines: implications of the WhatsApp decision
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) recently issued its largest ever fine in respect of a breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by WhatsApp. Following an extensive investigation, it concluded that the messaging service, owned by Facebook, had failed to meet the transparency requirements under articles 12–14 of the GDPR. The DPC had […]
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The internet as a commons
Since the beginning of the “information revolution” there has built up a tension between the rights of the owners of information and other intellectual property and the practical ability and desire of others to exploit that property using the developing technologies. This tension heightened considerably with the popularisation of the internet and the web as […]
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Future Legal Worlds 2050: into the unknown
In June 2021, the Law Society of England & Wales published its report Future Worlds 2050: Images of the Future Worlds Facing the Legal Profession 2020-2030. This project was “set up to bring an exceptional group of thinkers to the table for raw, frank and honest discussions around future client needs, to postulate the legal […]
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Mapping legal innovation
Innovation has, for lawyers, become an area of intense interest. It is likewise a concern and an increasing imperative among lawyers. With the legal services industry undergoing major economic and technological changes − such as digitalization, open data, blockchain technology, and artificial intelligence − law firms and legal departments have no other option than to […]
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Big tech, small tax: time to pay?
The internet has been a significant contributing factor to globalisation over the past couple of decades, notably leading to the creation of tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. Although many of these companies are based in Silicon Valley, their customers and users live all over the world. One of the issues which […]
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Pegasus spyware scandal: what lawyers need to know
Back in April 2021 I wrote an article for this newsletter about the Sunburst cyberattack, referencing a blog from Microsoft President Brad Smith in which he warned that mercenary-style technology companies, known as private sector offensive actors (PSOAs), are increasingly selling hacking tools to nation states. He specifically urged the US administration to take action […]
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The Post Office Horizon scandal: the law says computers are reliable
The Post Office Horizon scandal will probably have come to the attention of most lawyers over the last 12 months. There are a number of significant issues other than legal that surround the scandal, and Paul Marshall of Cornerstone Barristers, Gray’s Inn, succinctly summarises them in a lecture he gave at the University of Law […]
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