Integrating Law, Technology and Design: Teaching Data Protection & Privacy Law in a Digital Age

Abstract

In this paper, we identified five fundamental principles for developing data protection law courses in today’s digital age. The paper outlines the broader context of the transformation of legal education in a digital age; describes the importance of integrating legal-thinking and design-thinking with a deeper understanding of the underlying technologies and user-interfaces; and introduces the main features of a new approach to teaching data protection and privacy. The main argument of the paper is to suggest that the data protection lawyer of the future will become a key intermediary of innovation – or a ‘transaction engineer’ – who helps facilitate and coordinate new forms of business and other social relationships; contributes to harnessing the benefits of disruptive technologies, automation and digital connectivity to build next generation legal services; and contributes to the development of a legally compliant and socially responsible technological infrastructure. To perform this function effectively, however, data protection professionals need to develop a new mindset, along with several new skills and capacities, including a better understanding of the technological architecture of a post-digital transformation world, as well as the power and importance of legal design. Crucially, this means re-visiting the law school curriculum and legal education, more generally. From a pedagogical perspective, we propose a task-oriented, “sandbox”, and “gamified” approach to data protection law that delivers a more meaningful student experience in which students are given the space to experiment via engagement with timely and practical problems.