Payment systems around the globe have gone through tremendous changes and developments in the last decade. The technological and multimedia developments, recent financial crises, commercial changes and financial markets globalisation have all led to the emergence of new advanced payment devices coupled with a rapid rise in non-cash payment transactions. Fintech companies have been quick to follow this trend while striving to enhance digital payments. As payment transactions are a key component in any modern financial system, policy makers, courts and legal practitioners are now facing more challenges than ever before.

The subject deals with the law and practice of payment devices, focusing on the most recent changes and advanced innovations in the payment market. It is designed to provide students with unique knowledge of one of the building blocks of commercial and financial markets from a comparative and global perspective. In the course of studies we will analyse the main payment devices and innovative Fintech payments that are being used these days in Australia and other jurisdictions, while focusing on policy considerations, current legal frameworks, scholarly theories and business practices.

Principal topics include:

• Policy considerations in designing a payment system
• Characteristics of the Australian payment system
• Modern payment devices and their legal framework
  • The cheque as the paradigm payment device
  • Payment cards: credit cards, debit cards, stored-value cards and e-money
  • Electronic banking
  • Advanced payment networks (PayPal, Bpay, POLi, P2P networks)
  • Emerging trends - Mobile payments, digital currency (Bitcoin), contactless payments.
  • International payments.
• Consumers protection, in payment markets (unauthorised use of a payment device, stop payment order, error correction, distant payments, issuer insolvency, unused funds)
• Clearing and settlement (including real-time networks)
• The banking system and its effect on the payment market regulation
• Recent crises and the emergence of new payment systems
• The future of payments - an outline of the cashless society.

Historically a computer was “programmed” by a human utilising a precise set of instructions. Within this paradigm the computer was able to “process” information “fed” to it and produce a particular output based on such programming and information.

The human input was clear and transparent. As artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved in concert with the internet, cloud computing, big data gathering, data storage and data processing capabilities and the ubiquitous uptake of interactive smartphones and other “smart” devices, the relationship between the computer and direct and immediate human stewardship or control of outputs has become less readily identifiable. In turn this has given rise to significant legal issues.

There are substantial legal implications of AI which require ongoing, flexible and informed responses from lawyers and legal policy makers. This subject seeks to inform practicing lawyers, legal policy makers and non-lawyers in respect of those issues and how they might be dealt with.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to AI. What is AI? Where is AI headed?
• The legal issues raised by AI
• The ethical issues raised by AI and particular applications of AI
• Overview of current AI legal reviews underway in the USA, EU and UK and Australia’s response to these reviews
• Intellectual property issues raised by AI
• Criminal liability in respect of AI
• Civil legal liability – examination of who is (or should be) responsible/liable for AI caused loss and harm.
• Mandatory insurance schemes for loss or damage caused by autonomous robots or AI
• The legal regimes governing use of AI in security, law enforcement and military contexts
• Privacy and confidentiality implications of AI

Digital markets are affecting many aspects of our lives, transforming products, services, terms of trade, and even employment markets. The rising importance of big data, algorithmic decision-making, and online platforms create complex regulatory challenges for ensuring that the digital markets increase welfare. Competition law has an important role to play in this digital eco-system. Accordingly, this subject explores the complex challenges that digital markets pose to competition law. To do so, this subject will first analyze the unique characteristics of the digital environment and how they affect market dynamics. It will then analyze the main challenges to competition law, including coordination through algorithmic interactions, market power based on big data, abusive conduct by platforms and intermediaries, and defining markets and market power in digital eco-systems. It will also explore the intersection between competition, consumer protection and privacy, which is raising important institutional questions for the allocation and coordination of regulatory responses. This subject will explore global developments in this complex and fast-moving field. Drawing on the latest literature and major cases and inquiries, it will equip students to critically engage with and meet the challenges posed for business and its advisors and for policymakers, regulators and law enforcers in digital markets.

This subject is led by two of the world’s competition law experts, with particular expertise in the regulation of digital markets.

Principal topics will include:

• Analysing the special characteristics of digital markets and the unique market dynamics they create, including:
• Defining Big Data
• Analysing the dynamics of Big Data markets, including entry barriers and network effects
• Exploring advancements in algorithmic decision-making, including machine learning and deep learning
• Debating the competitive significance of algorithmic decision-making based on Big Data
• Exploring the role of digital intermediaries, including platforms, in the digital eco-system
• Analysing the unique challenges that digital markets pose to competition law enforcement, including:
• Increased coordination through algorithmic interactions
• Market power based on big data
• Abusive conduct by platforms and intermediaries
• Defining markets and market power in digital eco-systems
• Big Data and merger review
• Challenges created by the bundling of different products and services in the digital eco-system
• Analysing the intersection between competition, consumer protection and privacy

CSIRO’s Data61 network describes blockchain technology as ‘a revolutionary new approach to database management’ that will prompt ‘significant changes in existing Australian industries’. Yet, despite significant investments of time and money by institutions around the world, we still lack robust proof of social or commercial benefit. 12 years have passed since Bitcoin’s ‘Genesis Block’ was mined, but that foundational use case—digital cash without traditional intermediaries—has not challenged the legacy payments infrastructure. Where blockchain-based assets are used as monetary instruments rather than investments, those transactions are atypical in subject-matter and frequency.

All of this begs the question: if the goal of blockchain technology is to eliminate ‘trusted third parties’, why is that something to aspire to? Is the answer to that question commercial or political? And, most importantly, is it correct? The aim of this subject is to answer these questions, and to do so by situating cryptoassets in their global context—as a matter of law, economics, politics and society.

Principal topics will include:

• Digital money
  • From Mesopotamia to M-Pesa
  • Local currencies
  • Gaming currencies
• Introduction to blockchain technology, cryptoassets and smart contracts
• Blockchain: law and commerce
  • Supply chains
  • Pseudonymity and disintermediation
  • Digital assets and money
• Blockchain: politics and society
  • Legal systems and social norms
  • Mining pools and coding cores
  • Decision-making and accountability
• Digital money and future commerce
  • Cashlessness and crime
  • Data, identity and money
  • Social and economic inclusion

Digital technology is changing markets and the way in which consumers interact with them. This subject investigates the challenges raised by this transformation for policies and laws that aim to protect consumers in their market dealings and for the values that underpin these regimes. It will do this through a series of case studies critically examining different features of the consumer-market exchange in a digital age and the responses by governments to date. Through the lens of these case studies, students will:

• critically consider the adequacy of traditional policy and law in responding to the challenges raised by digital technology in the consumer market;
• explore what additional types of interventions and strategies might be used in responding to the distinctive characteristics of the digital consumer market; and
• investigate and evaluate the responses of different jurisdictions, including, as relevant, Australia, India, China, ASEAN, European Union, Canada and the United States in addressing effective consumer protection in a digital age.

Digital technologies raise new and challenging issues for labour law. This subject engages students with cutting-edge research on how digital technologies might frame the new world of work, with a focus on both national and transnational developments. The subject engages with key and emerging debates in labour law, including those relating to the regulation of the gig economy, social media and privacy, workplace monitoring, algorithmic discrimination and automation. It considers trends in legal and policy reform (including legislation and court judgements), and the ways in which labour law might need to be reformed to adapt to digital technologies. Drawing on the insights of expert international guests from academia, government and the union movement, it connects students with the leading experts in the field. The lecturers in this subject combine many years of academic scholarship in this area, engagement in law reform debates and practical advice to national and international regulators.

This subject provides a critical examination of the impact of digital technologies on work and labour law. It will focus on federal and Victorian jurisdictions, but also refer to international developments (including those at the ILO, in the European Union and the United States).

Principal topics will include:

• ‘Gig’ work, precarity and employment status, particularly where mediated through digital labour platforms;
• Algorithms, machine learning and equality law;
• Automation of work;
• Off-shoring and global work;
• Organising and collective bargaining in a digital age;
• Workplace monitoring, surveillance, and privacy;
• Social media in recruitment and disciplinary proceedings;
• Remote work and workplace inclusion.

International trade is being transformed by the globalisation of the internet and the ability to move data across borders. Small businesses and firms in developing countries are using internet platforms such as eBay and Alibaba to engage in international trade. Software, music and books that used to be traded physically are now being transmitted digitally across borders; lawyers, consultants and other professional services are using the internet to reach new markets. Data analytics and cloud computing have become essential tools for firms in domestic and international markets.

This subject will examine the impact of the internet and global data flows on international trade. Students will learn about the varied and innovative ways that the internet and data enable international economic activity. Students will look at how government regulation in areas such as privacy and national security affects digital trade and will examine the balance between achieving these goals and maximising opportunities for trade, growth and jobs. Students will learn about the extent to which international trade rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement support an open internet and global data flows; will identify gaps in law and practice; and will analyse where new global norms and rules are needed. Special topics covered may include: the opportunities of digital trade for developing countries and small and medium enterprises (SMEs); challenges posed by the 'Internet of Things' and privacy regulation; and digital trade and national security.

Joshua P Meltzer is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies where he teaches international trade law. He is a leading scholar on digital trade issues, consults governments, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum and was appointed an expert witness in digital trade and privacy litigation.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of the globalisation of the internet including global trends in internet access and use
• The economics of the internet - students will learn how internet access and global data flows are improving productivity, enabling innovation and expanding opportunities for global engagement
• What is the impact of the internet and data flows on international trade? This will include the role of digital platforms and the increasing importance of digital services trade
• What are the barriers to digital trade, who is erecting them and why? Students will learn about the regulatory challenges to digital trade in areas of consumer protection, financial and privacy laws and the different approaches being taken in the European Union, the United States and Australia, and consider how to achieve domestic regulatory goals while maximising digital trade
• Applying international trade law to digital trade issues and identifying the legal gaps - students will analyse where existing international trade rules apply to digital trade issues. This will include analysis of WTO agreements and cases as well as new trade rules in free trade agreements. Gaps in trade law will be identified and students will consider whether new trade rules and norms are needed and where they can be negotiated.

Esports refers to competitive video gaming, often in the form of professional events (league competitions, tournaments, championships or battle/match) and typically between sponsored gamers or teams. In the past decade, esports’s business model has developed rapidly from one initially based on individual game publishers to the contemporary multi-stakeholder industry that is projected to have revenues of AUD$2 billion in 2022 and a fan base on over a 1 billion in the same year. Esports leagues and franchises are now aligned with leading global sports entities such as the NBA and FIFA and it is in line to be included in future Olympic Games. This rapid growth and investment from traditional sports has not always been accompanied by adequate governance structures or legal protections for investors, sponsors or players. Being the first of its kind and delivered by experts in the industry and in sports law, the subject reviews the legal challenges and opportunities ahead for esports as an innovative and important revenue stream of the sports industry domestically and abroad.

This subject provides a critical examination of the development and current scope of esports as an industry and with respect to its current and future governance and legal obligations both domestically and globally as informed by a comparative approach.

Principal topics include:

• An introduction to the esports ecosystem
• Stakeholder overview: publishers; event organisers; league operators; teams and organisations; players; talent and content creators; fans
• Governing control in esports: software IP and license agreements
• esports mega events
• Regulating the esports scene; gambling and integrity; player rights and unionisation; diversity and inclusion; pathways into pro gaming.

Data relating to an individual’s physical and mental health and condition can reveal extremely sensitive information. Valuable health data also underpins improvements in health care and can be useful for other government and commercial purposes. How can the law protect the principle of medical confidentiality and enable the data flows necessary for a modern learning healthcare system, public health, and other public interest purposes?

Health privacy and data protection expert Mark Taylor considers the relevant law and governance in Australia and comparable jurisdictions. This subject will provide students with an advanced and specialised knowledge of health data governance, including relevant privacy and data protection law. It will invite critical consideration of relevant law benchmarked against the European Union General Data Protection Regulation and other international standards, such as the Recommendation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Council on Health Data Governance.

Principal topics include:

• Legal concepts of ‘personal health data’, ‘identifiability’, and ‘public interest’
• Transparency, informed consent, and respect for individual objection
• Confidentiality and third-party access, including family members, researcher, public health and government
• Feedback of incidental findings and the ‘right not to know’
• Oversight and approval mechanisms, with consideration of issues raised by increasing use of new techniques of machine learning and analysis of big data
• International and cross-border transfer

A deep transformation of the State is underway. Fueled by digital technologies that are changing its operation, nature and power, the Digital State is emerging. More than 75 years after “barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind” triggered the development of a system of international human rights norms and institutions to protect individuals against the overwhelming power of the State, this course considers the role that human rights law can play today to protect us from the threats posed by the Digital State. While the emphasis will be on the Digital State, this course will also explore how the Digital State relies on, and is sometimes in direct competition with, digital corporations which have sometimes outpaced and outmaneuvered it and, in the case of Big Tech, even appear to aspire to ‘digital statehood’. Throughout this course, we will study the response of international human rights mechanism, the human rights community and broader social justice movements to these developments and attempt to imagine not only how human rights can be protected in the digital era, but how the Digital State can play a pivotal role in enabling the realization of human rights in the 21st century.

Principal topics will include:

• The key characteristics of the Digital State, its appeal and how it differs from its predecessor.
• Digital State case studies from a diverse array of countries and political systems in areas such as criminal justice, immigration, identification and social protection and their specific, contextualized, human rights risks.
• The Digital State and recurrent human rights concerns, including: access barriers, lack of transparency, lack of reason-giving, discrimination, alienation and challenges related to redress and accountability.
• The role of the private sector in designing, enabling and profiting from the Digital State and the ascendancy of Big Tech and its challenge to the State, law and human rights.
• The response to the Digital State by UN human rights mechanisms and global human rights standard-setting relevant to the Digital State.
• Litigating the Digital State and non-judicial advocacy strategies by human rights and social justice organizations and movements.
• Fulfilling human rights in the 21st century: embracing the Digital Welfare State?

Information technology is critical to almost all modern organisations and processes. The development, acquisition and use of such technology raises a myriad of complex legal issues extending beyond conventional contractual issues and includes ownership rights, rights of use and risk management. This subject explores those issues with a particular emphasis on contracting and intellectual property issues associated with the development and sourcing of information technology products and services. Both lecturers are information technology lawyers who have had extensive practical experience acting for both providers and purchasers of such products and services.

Principal topics include:

• Overview of information technology and the Australian information technology development industry
• Alternate dispute resolution of information technology disputes
• Roles and relationships of the various parties to information technology agreements
• Copyright protection afforded to technology products and services, including online products and services
• Open source licensing arrangements
• Patent protection afforded to information technology products and services
• Employees and contractor rights and obligations in the context of the creation and development of information technology
• Software creation, development and exploitation
• Cloud services: risks and liability
• Database and content management issues
• Privacy issues associated with the development and use of information technology goods and services
• Risk allocation and management of information technology contracts (including insurance and escrow arrangements).

This subject will examine ways in which law is affecting, and being affected by, the latest advances in medical technology. It will cover a variety of fascinating technologies including genetic, big data analytics, regenerative, therapeutic, artificial intelligence and reproductive technologies. It challenges students to think not only about the future of medicine, but the future of human life itself. Are legal systems dealing with these issues in adequate, legitimate, and strategic ways?

Significantly, the course is not simply for medical lawyers. The syllabus weaves specific technological case-studies with important cross-cutting themes drawn from regulation theory, law reform, and applied philosophy. Those themes are organised so as to provide a framework for critical thinking about regulatory reform and the role of law, lawyers and the medical profession in this process. The themes also impart knowledge and skills relevant to a wide range of industries where law must deal with substantial scientific uncertainty and ethical controversy. Students with interests in privacy, human rights, tort law, IT governance, artificial intelligence, science and technology, family law, and risk regulation are all catered for.

The subject will not be limited to any particular jurisdiction, but focusses on Australian and European law and draws widely on world events. It will be taught by Dr Kathleen Liddell, Director of the Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences (Cambridge) who has more than 20 years’ experience in academia, legal practice, law reform, policy advice and ethical analysis.

Principal topics include:

• Genetic technology, gene editing and personalised medicine
• Human enhancement, cryogenics and other controversial scientific techniques
• Reproductive technologies ‘old and ‘new’ including IVF, embryo selection, artificial gametes, womb transplants and ectogenesis
• ‘Big data’, data analytics, AI and machine-based learning in healthcare
• Future therapeutics
• Regenerative medicine including organ transplants and human stem cell treatments
• Other topical issues that arise while the subject is being taught.

Cross-cutting themes include:

• Challenges of uncertainty, ambiguity, transformative potential and technological ‘drivers’
• ‘Ladders’ of regulatory intervention
• Phases in the maturation of health technology regulation
• Bioethical debates surrounding utility, autonomy, best interests and the public interest
• Limits of informed consent and paternalism as regulatory devices
• Regulatory ‘tourism’
• The purpose and impact of public engagement
• Other recurrent ethical and social issues such as technological exceptionalism and moral relativism
• Different policymaking cultures
• Incentives for innovation with a particular focus on cutting-edge issues in patent law.

Privacy has been valued for centuries but now there is a resurgent interest in its protection as a result of new technologies, changing social norms and a rise of markets focused on the commodity value of information. Overlapping with the resurgent interest in privacy is a related concern about the management of data flows, especially on the part of government agencies and business organisations. The legal frameworks that deal with privacy and data protection have a long history but are coming under pressure to adapt to a more complex modern environment.

Privacy and data protection experts Professor Megan Richardson and Karin Clark explore these issues. They pay particular attention to the scope and nature of privacy protection as well as appropriate limits and exceptions, the ongoing pressures for law reform, and the practical operation of privacy and data protection laws in Australia and comparable jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

• What is privacy?
• Conceptual and legal definitional issues
• International and comparative privacy and data protection regimes
• Protection of privacy in general law in Australia and comparable jurisdictions
• The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth): regulation of personal information held by the private and public sectors
• State/territory (especially Victorian) legislative regimes for the regulation of personal information
• Current topics in privacy law such as privacy and the media, privacy and health information, online privacy, telecommunications and surveillance privacy
• Current reform inquiries and proposals and likely reforms.