Journal entries - January 2010
Cyberlaw – an area of law?
Short essay done for class – because it’s more opinion than anything, I thought I might share it. Warning: legal stuff.
What is cyberlaw? Cyberlaw is the law applicable in ‘cyberspace’, a seemingly ‘global-economic zone, borderless and unregulatable’ (John Perry Barlow in 1966, quoted in Reed, 2004). Yet, as Chris Reed argues, it is possible to proceed to a localisation in the ‘physical’ world of the constituent elements of any given activity in cyberspace, and national laws will therefore apply, in accordance with rules on applicable law (such as the Rome I and Rome II Regulations, at the level of the European Union).
Therefore, there are as many legal orders in cyberspace as there are national (or supranational) legal orders.
Having made these preliminary remarks, the original question, to which the introductory statement refers, remains: is cyberlaw an area of law?
Arpia.be design refresh
As 2010 kicks off, it is time for me to unveil a new website design on which I have been working for a few months. It was a long process, involving several radically different ideas and long hours getting it all to work (especially on Internet Explorer), but here we are, finally.
I recommend trying things out, to find the hidden easter eggs and so on, to get used to the new functionality.
[Tested in Firefox 2-3, Safari 4, Google Chrome 4, Opera 9-10, Internet Explorer 7-8]
But to truly understand the design, I think a more extensive portrayal of the design process is in order.