The internet and consumer privacy - shopping basket or too hard basket

The Internet has rapidly become the world’s most prevalent form of communication. It can be accessed twenty-four hours a day from virtually any location in the world from a myriad of technologically savvy devices. Internet users can keep up to date with world events, watch movies, listen to music, interact with government agencies, analyse business trends, undertake research and maintain contact with people anywhere. The Internet also provides the ability for users to shop ‘online’ with virtually any product or service supplier anywhere in the world. This has created concerns regarding the use of personal information obtained through the medium of the Internet. An individual’s right to privacy is a right enshrined in legislation and through tort law. With the uptake of technology and the burgeoning use of the Internet the subject of online privacy has become a complex issue for law and policy makers both in New Zealand and internationally. The aim of this paper is to look at the online shopper or consumer and how their information could be protected. This paper looks at the key areas of privacy legislation, the storage of data and the rise of new technologies including ‘cloud’ computing and suggests that the complexity of online privacy is such that a different approach to access and use of personal information of online shoppers may be required. The rate of technology change, the enormity of the data capture situation and the international accessibility of the Internet are all factors that create an almost impossible situation for ensuring consumer privacy so this paper proposes that the onus moves away from the law and policy makers and put into the hands of the users of the Internet

Counterinsurgency and Stability Operations: A New Approach to Legal Interpretation

Dale Stephen

The International Legal Implications of Military Space Operations: Examining the Interplay between International Humanitarian Law and the Outer Space Legal Regime

In the contemporary period, many military forces rely heavily on space-based assets to conduct operations across a wide spectrum of contexts. Such reliance necessarily exposes a correlative vulnerability that such assets may be degraded or destroyed, especially in a time of armed conflict. However, the legal framework that governs military action in space during a time of armed conflict is not well explored. This article examines the interaction between International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the Outer Space legal regime. Harmonization of legal regimes is a goal of any reconciliation project, although such harmonization may not always be readily possible. In such circumstances legal interpretative mechanisms that seek either a vertical hierarchy (jus cogens) or a horizontal priority (lex specialis) may apply, but their utility is often elusive in particular situations. Hence, in those situations identification of relevant state practice can provide a more reliable guide as to treaty context and thus better identify respective objective preferences. Though even here there may not be sufficient state practice, or it might be too diffuse. Thus, when all “normal” legal tools fail to render a satisfactory outcome, this article concludes that a stark policy choice will need to be made between what aspects of which particular treaty regime will apply. It offers a set of principles that might be invoked as a solution. Such an approach is advanced as means of resolving differences by assimilating common value commitments contained within both the IHL and the Outer Space treaty regimes to provide a viable means of harmonization

The Royal Australian Navy in World War II,

Australia is quintessentially a maritime nation. From the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook, RN, in Botany Bay in 1770, navies have featured heavily in the his- torical experience of Australia, and for this naval officer, the navy is rightfully regarded as “the senior service.” Given this background, it seems surprising that there is not more written about this naval tradition and especially about the triumphs and tragedies of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in wartime. The recent publication of a second edition of David Stevens’s Royal Australian Navy in World War II fills a very important gap. First published in 1996, the book has been augmented significantly in this new edition

The Age of Lawfare

Dale Stephen

Poverty in the Elementary Classroom

One of the texts used for the course Learning in Diverse Contexts is Disrupting Poverty by Budge and Parrett. It explores ways elementary teachers can offset the poverty seen in their students’ lives. This session will discuss this text and its powerful impact on one undergraduate student in particular