About the Cyberspace Law and Policy Community
The Cyberspace Law and Policy Community at UNSW provides a public interest focus on legal and policy issues arising from digital transactions in online and networked environments, through research and research training, education and advocacy. (Before 2013 it was called the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre.)
With multi-disciplinary collaborative research projects it aims to explore emerging challenges in areas such as regulation of malware and cybercrime, online content regulation, hacktivism, cloud computing, legal jurisdiction in virtual worlds, intellectual property in digital artefacts, privacy and personal information security, online financial transactions and investment services, e‐commerce, egovernment, authentication and encryption, Internet governance, and legal issues arising from threats to networked security.
The Centre's distinctive focus is to take a public interest perspective on these often-technical issues. The emphasis is not on technology as such, but rather on the regulation of the social space created by computing networks - 'cyberspace'.
Key personnel
Alana Maurushat (Academic co-director)
Alana Maurushat, B.A. (University of Calgary), B.C.L.(McGill), LL.B. (McGill), LL.M. with Concentration in Law and Technology (University of Ottawa), PhD Candidate (University of New South Wales) is Academic Co-Director of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Community, lecturer, and PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law at UNSW.
Prior to moving to Sydney, she was an Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the LLM in Information Technology and Intellectual Property at the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law. She has taught in summer programs for the University of Santa Clara, Duke University, and has been invited to teach at the Université de Nantes this coming year. Her current research is focused on technical, ethical and legal dimensions of cybercrime and computer malware building on past research projects which addressed the impact of surveillance technologies on free expression and privacy.
Dr Lyria Bennett Moses (Academic co-Director)
Lyria joined the UNSW Law Faculty in 2006, having previously worked as an Associate in Law at Columbia University in New York, a solicitor at Freehills and an Associate to the Honourable Justice Margaret Stone in the Federal Court of Australia.
She completed a doctorate on the Impact of Technological Change on Law from Columbia Law School. Dr Bennett Moses was one of several of Faculty members involved in the Young People and Internet Filtering research project, and has research interests in law technology and regulatory theory, and in property law and equity.
David Vaile (Executive director)
David Vaile became executive director of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre (as it then was) in 2002. He has coordinated Centre support for ARC research projects such Unlocking IP, Interpreting Privacy Principles and Regulating Online Investing, including input into public policy processes; and presents for the Community at conferences and fora; runs intern programs; and teaches Cyberspace Law, Law in the Information Age, and Advanced Legal Research. His background in law, IT and communications includes medical record software (JAM Software), legal research (Legal Aid NSW), data protection (Privacy Commissioner's Office), pro bono, public interest and test case litigation (Public Interest Advocacy Centre and others), co-founding the virtual community for NGO lawyers and advocates ('First Class Law' with the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW and NACLC), online professional education, and governance of IT risks. His research interests include personal safety online, content regulation, e-security and IT risk management, privacy and data protection, jurisdictional issues, copyright and digital IP, e-health records, and user-centred design. He is a past member of Information Security World Advisory Board, former chair of a statewide community legal service, and board member of Australian Privacy Foundation.
For further information, see also:-
Invaluable contributions were made by Graham Greenleaf (founding co-director and academic director until 2010), Chris Connolly (founding co-director, now at Galexia Consulting and current visiting fellow), and Dr Lee Bygrave (first Acting Director, now in Norway).
Other former staffIn addition, undergraduate interns, postgraduate researchers, consultants and experienced Research Associates contribute to the Community's operation. See the Research Associates and Postgraduate research associates and interns pages.
(In recognition of the generous startup funding provided by the law firm Baker & McKenzie for its first several years of operation, the Community's original name was the Baker & McKenzie Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre. In 2005 after substantial ARC research project funding made possible during that startup phase, the nature of the firm's ongoing support changed, and the Centre's name was shortened. In 2013 Centre became Community, in recognition of a change of status and a re-focus on cultivating the collaborative community.)