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Unit of Study LAWS2042 - Information Environmentalism (2021)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    Students are required to attend a compulsory 4 day on-campus workshop. Please check the class timetable for details.

Unit description

Explores emergent ideas relating to the contemporary regulation of information. Parallels are drawn between environmental law frameworks that evolved in the 1970s and the 21st century need for regulatory structures concerning the information environment. Four environmental analytical frameworks are canvassed: welfare economics, the commons, ecology, and public choice theory.

Unit content

Topic 1: Introduction to information environmentalism

Topic 2: Information paradox and public goods

Topic 3: Externalities and monopolies

Topic 4: Information commons

Topic 5: Tragedy of (ignoring) the information semicommons

Topic 6: The social ecology of information environmental governance

Topic 7: Should the information commons have standing?

Topic 8: Rational truths, reasonable arguments and rhetorical imagination

Topic 9: Public choice theory and social production

Topic 10: Separation of (economic) power doctrine

Topic 11: Towards an information environmental governance framework

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2021

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

Diagnose contemporary information environmental regulatory challenges

Gauge the role of information economics in determining appropriate information regulation

Outline the parameters of the information commons and assess its governance potential

Determine the utility of applying ecological principles to the information environment

Weigh competing methods of counteracting the regulatory effect of concentrated interests

Critically evaluate information environmental governance frameworks

Consider the reform potential of hypothetical legal judgments