The legality of deep packet inspection

Deep packet inspection is a technology which enables the examination of the content of information packets being sent over the Internet. The Internet was originally set up using “end-to-end connectivity” as part of its design, allowing nodes of the network to send packets to all other nodes of the network, without requiring intermediate network elements to maintain status information about the transmission. In this way, the Internet was created as a “dumb” network, with “intelligent” devices (such as personal computers) at the end or “last mile” of the network. The dumb network does not interfere with an application's operation, nor is it sensitive to the needs of an application, and as such it treats all information sent over it as (more or less) equal. Yet, deep packet inspection allows the examination of packets at places on the network which are not endpoints, In practice, this permits entities such as Internet service providers (ISPs) or governments to observe the content of the information being sent, and perhaps even manipulate it. Indeed, the existence and implementation of deep packet inspection may challenge profoundly the egalitarian and open character of the Internet. This paper will firstly elaborate on what deep packet inspection is and how it works from a technological perspective, before going on to examine how it is being used in practice by governments and corporations. Legal problems have already been created by the use of deep packet inspection, which involve fundamental rights (especially of Internet users), such as freedom of expression and privacy, as well as more economic concerns, such as competition and copyright. These issues will be considered, and an assessment of the conformity of the use of deep packet inspection with law will be made. There will be a concentration on the use of deep packet inspection in European and North American jurisdictions, where it has already provoked debate, particularly in the context of discussions on net neutrality. This paper will also incorporate a more fundamental assessment of the values that are desirable for the Internet to respect and exhibit (such as openness, equality and neutrality), before concluding with the formulation of a legal and regulatory response to the use of this technology, in accordance with these values

COVID-19 data on the fringes:the Scottish story

COVID-19 hit at a time when the United Kingdom was vulnerable, reeling from its exit from the European Union and wracked by ongoing issues over the devolved nations, particularly Northern Ireland and Scotland, both of which had voted to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum. Scotland had its own 2014 referendum on independence from the UK, which was narrowly won by the “No” side. While a pro-Brexit, right-wing Conservative government rules in London, the devolved administration in Edinburgh is led by the center-left Scottish National Party (SNP) government and first minister Nicola Sturgeon. However, when the pandemic first hit the UK in the early months of 2020, there was no discernible difference in approach between the Scottish government and the UK Government. In March 2020, both Scotland and the wider UK imposed lockdowns later than in other European countries. By mid-March, both had abandoned manual contact tracing around the same time that “Big Tech” firms such as Palantir were invited to meetings with the UK government. Later that month, NHSX (the English public health service unit tasked with setting policy and best practice for digital technologies and data in health) started developing a contact-tracing app amid techno-deterministic claims from the Johnson administration in London that we could digitize our way out of the pandemic

Furthering Substantive Equality Through Administrative Law: Charter Values in Education

Recent decisions in the realm of Canadian public law have opened the door to Charter values. Administrative decision-makers must have regard to these values when making decisions. Through the use of a fictional example, this paper is intended provide a guide for laypersons, lawyers, judges, administrators, arbitrators and academics on how to further substantive equality through administrative law. The authors’ focus is on education law, but the proposed framework is capable of application across a wide range of areas. Those in other jurisdictions can replace Charter values with “constitutional values” and adopt a similar analysis. The obligation to educate children about a “diversity of opinions and cultures” is at the heart of the authors’ exploration of administrative decision-making in the education system. They argue, however, that the obligation to pay attention to Charter values provides the lifeblood of substantive equality in the administrative law context. The concept of applying Charter values as a juridical tool in decision-making, while not new, has been given a more dominant role in administrative decision-making by the Supreme Court of Canada in its 2012 Doré decision. While the exact meanings and practical applications of this concept are as yet unclear, this paper makes a small step towards imagining the contours of Charter values. In particular the authors attempt to establish, as a first principle, the role of substantive equality as Charter values begin to solidify and take shape in the jurisprudence. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part presents a fictional administrative law decision-making scenario located within the public school system. This scenario provides a concrete backdrop against which to imagine the function of substantive equality within Charter values. It also discusses the public school system in Canada as a key site for the application of Charter values, and the authors lay out the empirical evidence showing that GLBTQ students and the children of GLBTQ parents suffer an equality deficit in Canadian public schools, a deficit which, in the authors’ view, can be addressed through the proper application of Charter values by decision-makers within the education system. The second part develops an administrative law framework for furthering substantive equality. Specifically, it situates substantive equality within the existing framework of administrative law, and provides a blueprint for what substantive claims might look like under the authors’ proposed framework. The third part treats the precise role of substantive equality, outlining a methodology for blending existing equality jurisprudence with the Court’s decision in Doré, using the fictional scenario as a backdrop. The authors conclude with a demonstration of their proposed framework in the context of their fictional example

Encoding the Enforcement of Safety Standards into Smart Robots to Harness Their Computing Sophistication and Collaborative Potential:A Legal Risk Assessment for European Union Policymakers

Until robots and humans mostly worked in fast-paced and yet separate environments, occupational health and safety (OHS) rules could address workers’ safety largely independently from robotic conduct. This is no longer the case: collaborative robots (cobots) working alongside humans warrant the design of policies ensuring the safety of both humans and robots at once, within shared spaces and upon delivery of cooperative workflows. Within the European Union (EU), the applicable regulatory framework stands at the intersection between international industry standards and legislation at the EU as well as Member State level. Not only do current standards and laws fail to satisfactorily attend to the physical and mental health challenges prompted by human–robot interaction (HRI), but they exhibit important gaps in relation to smart cobots (“SmaCobs”) more specifically. In fact, SmaCobs combine the black-box unforeseeability afforded by machine learning with more general HRI-associated risks, towards increasingly complex, mobile and interconnected operational interfaces and production chains. Against this backdrop, based on productivity and health motivations, we urge the encoding of the enforcement of OHS policies directly into SmaCobs. First, SmaCobs could harness the sophistication of quantum computing to adapt a tangled normative architecture in a responsive manner to the contingent needs of each situation. Second, entrusting them with OHS enforcement vis-à-vis both themselves and humans may paradoxically prove safer as well as more cost-effective than for humans to do so. This scenario raises profound legal, ethical and somewhat philosophical concerns around SmaCobs’ legal personality, the apportionment of liability and algorithmic explainability. The first systematic proposal to tackle such questions is henceforth formulated. For the EU, we propose that this is achieved through a new binding OHS Regulation aimed at the SmaCobs age.<br/

Language-sensitive teaching as an emergent response to increasing linguistic diversity in Irish post-primary schools: Challenges, opportunities and implications for teacher education

The 21st century has been characterised by an unprecedented growth in transnational migration with education systems in many countries challenged to address the implications of this ongoing global phenomenon. This paper reports on a recent study that was undertaken amongst teachers and school managers in post-primary state schools in Ireland to explore the current position regarding language-sensitive teaching as an emergent response to the growing reality of linguistic diversity in schools. Bottom-up research of this kind is vital as it can shed light on the perceptions and experiences of the key stakeholders involved in order to determine their related professional needs and shape future directions in teacher education in this area. The key findings show that language-sensitive teaching remains in its infancy in the Irish post-primary educational context with an urgent need for teacher awareness-raising and upskilling in relation to this approach and its implementation in different subject classrooms. The research has also indicated that language support teachers can play a central role in developing language-sensitive teaching at the whole school level but this potential remains largely under-exploited in the Irish post-primary educational context

Teaching digital and global law for digital and global students: creating students as producers in a Hong Kong Internet Law class

In an increasingly globalised and digitalised society and economy, legal education needs to foster a different skill set among students from that taught traditionally. Law students need practice in responding to a variety of scenarios and contexts, as well as developing creative and critical thinking skills. The "student as producer" approach provides opportunities for students to build such skills by having students produce work that could benefit their fellow classmates and future cohorts, and contribute to the discipline's knowledge base. We present a case study of a final year undergraduate law course, Internet and the Law, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong where we used the student as producer approach, collaborated with external organisations and used digital tools to foster global and digital-savvy law students. Using a mixed-methods approach we highlight successes and limitations of using the "student as producer" approach, digital tools and an internationalised curriculum in our law classroom. Overall, students and staff found the approach successful in providing global and digital law students with practical skills. We also identified limitations and challenges to be addressed in future projects. Our findings speak to broader themes of active engagement, contributions, and practical knowledge for law students in their learning and future careers

Net Neutrality in New Times:Revisiting the Open Internet Regulation in the UK

This short report is based on research proposed and carried out by the authors, and funded by BT. Our collective aim is to revisit net neutrality as a policy issue and raise its profile on the tech policy agenda. This report reflects the authors' views only and does not necessarily reflect the views of BT