1.
The legal toolbox and society ^
2.
Information Law: a jigsaw puzzle? ^
I will not go into further detail on the many and varied trends in the development of Information Law to date. There are many histories internationally. Rather, I will present and assess my own views on the development in recent years. In my own work, I have considered Information Law to be one of the key areas within Legal Informatics.9 And I have presented what I feel are its central principles. It is easy to speak of Information Law. It is rather more difficult to talk about the defining principles of the field.
3.
Towards Information Law in the Network Society ^
- The right to know
- The right to information
- The right to communication
- Freedom of information
- The free flow of information
- The informational right to self-determination
- The right to information security
4.
Conclusions ^
5.
Literature ^
Bing, Jon, Information law, Journal of Media Law and Practice, 1981, pp. 219–239.
Burkert, Herbert, From Discipline to Method. In: Bing, Jon (ed.), En hyllest /// A tribute, 2014, pp. 388–399.
Dworkin, Ronald, A Matter of Principle, 1986.
Ferrajoli, Luigi, Fundamental Rights. In: International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 2001, Volume 14, Issue 1, pp. 1–33.
Golman, Russel/Hagmann, David/Loewenstein, George, Information Avoidance. In: Journal of Economic Literature, Forthcoming (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2633226).
Heiskala, Risto, Yhteiskuntatutkimuksen vaikuttavuus ja uusi uljas maailma. In: Tieteessä tapahtuu 2016, Volume 34, Issue 1, pp. 27–33
Hoeren, Thomas, Brüssel und die zehn Gebote der Verfahrensgerechtigkeit. In: Multimedia und Recht 2002, Heft 1.
La Torre, Massimo, Nine Critiques to Alexy´s Theory of Fundamental Rights. In: Menéndez, Agustín J./Eriksen, Erik O. (eds.), Arguing Fundamental Rights (Law and Philosophy Library 77), 2006, pp. 53–68.
Lynskey, Orla, The Foundations of EU Data protection Law, 2015.
Pöysti, Tuomas, Tehokkuus, informaatio ja eurooppalainen oikeusalue, 1999.
Pöysti, Tuomas, ICT and Legal Principles: Sources and Paradigm of Information Law. In: Scandinavian Studies in Law 2004, Volume 47, pp. 560–600.
Saarenpää, Ahti, Informaatio-oikeus. In: Encyclopaedia Iuridica Fennica (EIF) VII 1999, pp. 206–215.
Saarenpää, Ahti, Perspectives on Privacy. In: Saarenpää, Ahti (ed.), Legal Privacy, Lefis Serie 5, 2008.
Saarenpää, Ahti, The Digital Lawyer. What skills are required of the lawyer in the Network Society? In: Schweighofer, Erich/Kummer, Franz/Hötzendorfer, Walter (eds.), Kooperation – Tagungsband des 18. Internationalen Rechtsinformatik Symposions IRIS 2015, 2015, pp.73–85.
Saarenpää, Ahti, Does Legal Informatics have a method in the new Network Society? In: Saarenpää, Ahti/Wiatrowski, Aleksander (eds.), Society Trapped in the Network Society. Does it have a Future?, 2016, pp. 51–75.
Saarenpää, Ahti, Legal Informatics today – the View from the University of Lapland, Finland. In: Saarenpää, Ahti/Sztobryn, Karolina (eds.), Lawyers in the Media Society, 2016, pp. 9–16.
Saarenpää, Ahti, Oikeusinformatiikka. In: Niemi, Marja-Leena (ed.), Oikeus tänään II, 2016, pp. 17–233.
Schartum, Dag Wiese, From algorithmic law to automation-friendly legislation. In: Yulex 2016, pp. 27–30.
Seipel, Peter, Juridik och IT, 7th edition, 2001.
- 1 See Saarenpää, Does Legal Informatics have a method in the new Network Society?, pp. 51–75.
- 2 In Finland, Risto Heiskala, a well-known professor of sociology, has recently pointed out, and most aptly, that as teachers we should carefully consider what we say in our teaching given that those words will impact society for the next 30 or 40 years through our students. See Heiskala, Yhteiskuntatutkimuksen vaikuttavuus ja uusi uljas maailma, pp. 27–33 (in Finnish).
- 3 When the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal turned ten in 1989, one way the event was marked was an essay contest. One of the entries described lawyers who used computers as «keyboard lawyers». This was by way of questioning their professional legal skills; real lawyers and keyboard lawyers did not belong to the same professional family.
- 4 Dworkin, A Matter of Principle, pp. 146–166.
- 5 See generally, for example, Tagungsbericht «Informationsrecht. Geschichte und Zukunft einer neuen Disziplin», http://www.uni-muenster.de/Jura.itm/hoeren/legacy/forschung/tagungsberichtgreifswald.pdf (all Internet sources accessed on 3 February 2017).
- 6 Bing, Information law. Journal of Media Law and Practice, p. 219.
- 7 For example, Seipel, Juridik och IT, pp. 268–269 (in Swedish).
- 8 Even nowadays in Sweden, Professor Cecilia Magnusson-Sjöberg does not use the concept «Information Law» in her introduction to Legal Informatics. She is more like Fiedler in using the division between the methodological and the material parts of legal informatics. See Magnusson-Sjörberg, Om rättsinformatik, pp. 23–30.
- 9 Saarenpää, Legal Informatics Today – the View from the University of Lapland, Finlan, p. 13.
- 10 Pöysti, Tehokkuus, informaatio ja eurooppalainen oikeusalue (in Finnish). See later for example Pöysti, ICT and Legal Principles: Sources and Paradigm of Information Law, pp. 560–600.
- 11 Saarenpää, Informaatio-oikeus, pp. 206–215 (in Finnish).
- 12 Saarenpää, Perspectives on Privacy, p. 59.
- 13 See for example Hoeren, Eine kontraktualistische Konzeption der Informationsgerechtigkeit, pp. 333–345.
- 14 See for example Saarenpää, The Digital Lawyer. What skills are required of the lawyer in the Network Society?, pp. 73–85.
- 15 See Saarenpää, Oikeusinformatiikka, pp. 162–163 (in Finnish).
- 16 See also Burkert, From Discipline to Method, p. 399.
- 17 It is important to notice that the institutes for Legal Informatics are – and should be – centres of competence. They should not be facilities dedicated to rivalry between and leverage for narrow schools of thought.
- 18 Cfr. for example Lynskey, The Foundations of EU Data Protection Law, pp. 254–273, where the balance between data protection and openness is left in the shadow of data protection.
- 19 See for example already Ferrajoli, Fundamental Rights.
- 20 See for example La Torre, Nine Critiques to Alexy´s Theory of Fundamental Rights, pp. 53–68.
- 21 Cfr. Schartum, From algorithmic law to automation friendly legislation, pp. 27–30.
- 22 See more in Golman/Hagmann/Loewenstein, Information Avoidance.