LL4S2 Half Unit
E-Commerce Law
This information is for the 2024/25 session.
Teacher responsible
Professor Andrew Murray
Other staff involved:
Dr Edmund Schuster
Professor Mark Lewis
Availability
This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time) and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.
Course content
This course is to introduce students from a legal background to the specialised legal structure which surrounds e-commerce. The course looks at the specific problems an e-commerce start-up must overcome in order to begin trading, including electronic contracting, payment and consumer protection, arranging cloud hosting agreements, designing terms and conditions of service and delivery, and arranging distribution agreements. Also examined will be smart contracts and distributed ledger technology. From here the course will develop to examine the problems of more mature e-commerce businesses including jurisdiction, payment systems (including cryptocurrency) and access to, and ownership of, data. Classes on cybersecurity and the application of AI in the commercial environment complete the analysis. The course is designed to act as an interface between ICT law and commercial law and practice in that it examines in detail the close sub-set of online transactions which are clearly commercial in nature.
Teaching
This course will have 20 hours of teaching content in Winter Term. There will be a Reading Week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative coursework
Students should submit an essay plan and working bibliography for the assessed essay. All students are expected to contribute to a series of class and online exercises, and to submit one 2,000 word formative essay.
Indicative reading
Murray: Information Technology Law: The Law and Society 5ed (OUP, 2023)
Lodder & Andrew Murray (eds) EU Regulation of E-Commerce: A Commentary 2ed (Edward Elgar, 2022)
Millard: Cloud Computing Law (OUP, 2021).
Fox & Green: Cryptocurrencies in Public and Private Law (OUP, 2019).
Finck: Blockchain Regulation and Governance in Europe (CUP, 2018).
Cohen: Between Truth and Power: The Legal Constructions of Informational Capitalism (OUP, 2019).
Susskind: Online Courts and the Future of Justice (OUP, 2019).
Assessment
Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes) in the spring exam period.
Key facts
Department: Law School
Total students 2023/24: 61
Average class size 2023/24: 31
Controlled access 2023/24: Yes
Value: Half Unit
Course selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills