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Gold Coast Session 3 Session 3

Unit Summary

Unit type

UG Coursework Unit

Credit points

12

AQF level

7

Level of learning

Advanced

Former School/College

Former School of Law and Justice

Pre-requisites

Any 12 Units (144 credit points) at tertiary level

Co-requisites

N/A

Anti-requisites

N/A

Unit aim

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

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.

GA1: , GA2: , GA3: , GA4: , GA5: , GA6: , GA7:
On completion of this unit, students should be able to: GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 Diagnose contemporary information environmental regulatory challenges
2 Gauge the role of information economics in determining appropriate information regulation
3 Outline the parameters of the information commons and assess its governance potential
4 Determine the utility of applying ecological principles to the information environment
5 Weigh competing methods of counteracting the regulatory effect of concentrated interests
6 Critically evaluate information environmental governance frameworks
7 Consider the reform potential of hypothetical legal judgments

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

  1. Diagnose contemporary information environmental regulatory challenges
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  2. Gauge the role of information economics in determining appropriate information regulation
    • GA1:
    • GA2:
    • GA4:
  3. Outline the parameters of the information commons and assess its governance potential
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  4. Determine the utility of applying ecological principles to the information environment
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  5. Weigh competing methods of counteracting the regulatory effect of concentrated interests
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  6. Critically evaluate information environmental governance frameworks
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  7. Consider the reform potential of hypothetical legal judgments
    • GA1:
    • GA2:
    • GA4:

Prescribed texts

  • Cunningham, R, 2014, Information Environmentalism: a governance framework for intellectual property rights, Edward Elgar. ISBN: 978 0 85793 843 5.
Prescribed texts may change in future teaching periods.