LAW41270 Data Protection and Privacy: National and International Perspectives

Academic Year 2021/2022

This module provides a detailed introduction to data protection and privacy law, taking an international perspective that focuses on Irish and EU law. The course will consider theoretical approaches to conceptualizing an individual’s interest in personal information. It will also introduce the fundamental legal rules governing the handling of that information, including constitutional law, tort law, contracts, and statutory regulation. Particular attention is given to the new European data protection framework established by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Show/hide contentOpenClose All

Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of the module students should be able to:

• Analyse theoretical approaches to defining the interest in personal data.
• Compare and contrast approaches to data protection and privacy law in Europe and Ireland.
• Discuss the impact of technological change on data protection and privacy law.
• Understand both legal and non-legal responses to data protection and privacy challenges.
• Identify the overlaps and differences between data protection and privacy rules.
• Apply fundamental principles of data protection and privacy law to factual situations.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

24

Autonomous Student Learning

180

Total

204

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Teaching for this module will include lectures and seminar discussions based on prior reading. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment: 2,500 word take home examination Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

50

Assignment: 2,500 word assignment Week 8 n/a Graded No

50


Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Group feedback will be available on both the assignment and take home exam.

For an excellent overview of privacy and data protection in a European context see:

• Handbook on European Data Protection Law (Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2018), https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2018/handbook-european-data-protection-law.

For a general introduction to privacy see generally:

• Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “The Right to Privacy in a Digital Age,” June 30, 2014, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session27/Documents/A.HRC.27.37_en.pdf.
• Daniel J. Solove, “‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy” 44 (2007): 745, http://ssrn.com/abstract=998565
• Daniel Solove, “A Taxonomy of Privacy,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 154, no. 3 (2006): 477–560, https://www.law.upenn.edu/journals/lawreview/articles/volume154/issue3/Solove154U.Pa.L.Rev.477%282006%29.pdf
• Neil M. Richards, “Four Privacy Myths,” in A World Without Privacy, ed. Austin Sarat (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=2427808.
Name Role
Mr Ronan Lupton Lecturer / Co-Lecturer