In 2023, Epic Games, the software studio behind the enormously popular video game "Fortnite" was sued in several jurisdictions for making its game too addictive. Snapchat was sued in the United States after a traffic collision for allegedly encouraging its users to earn a "badge" by driving at excessive speeds. In response to new technologies, tort law developed means for dealing with invasions of privacy. The tort of defamation has had to adjust itself to the new reality of social media publishing, and more recently to the possibility that chatbots may be sued for defamation.

The course will start by considering the impact of technology on our lives; it will then turn to the question of the interrelationship between technological change and legal (especially tort) doctrine: how technological change influenced doctrine and whether doctrine can affect technological change. The main bulk of the course will be devoted to examining issues in products liability, addiction, harassment, defamation, and invasion of privacy, to examine the possibilities, but also the limitations, of using tort law for dealing with them.

The use of Generative AI tools is not allowed.

Grading of Student Achievement: Standard (A+ A A- ... F)

Applicable to students admitted in Semester A 2022/23 and 2023/24

To pass this course students must obtain an aggregate mark of 50% and a minimum of 50% in each of the continuous assessment (CA) and final exam component.

Applicable to students admitted before Semester A 2022/23 and Semester A 2024/25

To pass this course students must obtain an aggregate mark of 40% and a minimum of 40% in each of the continuous assessment (CA) and final exam component.

To ensure fair and comprehensive assessment of students' course performance, the pass mark requirement for the CA component will be waived for courses with a CA component equal to or less than 30%. This means students only need to achieve the pass marks for the final exam component AND the overall mark to pass the course. Continuous assessment for this purpose means those ways in which students are assessed otherwise than by the end of semester examination.

The portion of the overall mark allocated to performance/participation in inter-active in class activities will be assessed on the quality of the participation. Assessment criteria for those activities, their nature and their timing will be set out in the study guide/course manual and will be further expanded upon by the course leader.

To enable the full benefit to be obtained from this course, students should attend all of the classes and activities.

Assessment will be formative to enable students to demonstrate their capacity to understand, analyse and apply rules and principles and summative to assess ability to synthesise primary and secondary material to solve novel problems.