Course Catalogue

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Digital technologies, such as Information and Communication Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, and Distributed Ledger Technology, are at the core of today's global security landscape, transforming the nature of security threats and responses. Against this backdrop, this course examines the relationship between digital technologies, international law and security. It explores topics such as digital surveillance, information operations, and military use of digital technologies, assessing their implications for human, national, and international (in)security. The course investigates the role of international law in facilitating and constraining the development and use of digital technologies in the context of international security. In doing so, it also assesses what the rise of digital technologies in the security realm means for international law structurally.

10 x 2 hour seminars in semester 2.

The course is open to all LLM students subject to the requirements of the LLM programme to which a student is enrolled.

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The course will be assessed by two written assignments: a response paper of 1500 words (25%) and an essay of 3500 words (75%).

The principal aims of this course are to provide students with: 

■ an overview of the use of digital technologies within the global security landscape;

■ critical insights into the implications of digital technologies for human, national, and international security; and

■ comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the role of international law within this landscape. 

The overall aim of the course is to equip students with the legal knowledge, critical thinking, and independent learning skills required to address this increasingly important and ever-evolving field as global citizens and in diverse career pathways in the fields of law, policy-making and technology.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ identify the principal uses of digital technologies that are of relevance to human, national and international security;

■ chart and apply key legal concepts and principles particularly of general international law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law to digital security practices; 

■ explain and assess how such uses of digital technologies challenge traditional doctrines of international law, such as in relation to territory, jurisdiction and responsibility; 

■ critically evaluate the complex roles of international law in facilitating and restricting the use of digital technologies within the global security landscape;

■ critically assess existing legal reform initiatives in response to digital technologies and international security; and

■ construct and present evidence-based arguments of law and legal policy, orally and in writing, both individually and as part of a team.