The New Zealand Centre for ICT Law goes live

The New Zealand ICT Law Centre had its official launch on July 28 at the University of Auckland. The centre is located at the Law School and is the brainchild of its founding director, former District Court Judge David Harvey, who explains his plans for the centre.

My vision for the Centre is three-fold. Under the guidance of the centre, teaching in IT and law will expand from the present undergraduate course to masters papers covering different aspects. The first planned paper will address cybersecurity and cybercrime. In addition, it is planned that the centre will co-operate with the New Zealand Law Society and the Auckland District Law Society in running courses or seminars for lawyers dealing with IT issues. The cCentre also hopes to host overseas speakers in the ICT and law field.

The second aspect of the centre will focus on research and policy development. Digital systems are becoming pervasive and the law must develop to keep up and remain relevant. A long-term research project looking at the implementation and effectiveness of the Harmful Digital Communications Act is under way and the scope of that research will increase later in the year as the civil enforcement "takedown" regime comes into force. A project looking at ways in which online systems can provide assistance for self-represented litigants to help them with case presentation in court has completed a resource review and is progressing to consider the type of information that might be provided.

Other initiatives will require consideration. The Search and Surveillance Act is under review by the Law Commission and the Privacy Act will also be reviewed later this year. The centre will be developing research and making submissions based on solid research in both these areas.

The final aspect is what I describe as a "long-term project" and the "jewel in the Crown." The objective is a fully featured electronic courtroom that will act as a teaching facility, a research centre and a laboratory where students can learn to use technology in case presentation, where lawyers and judges can try out technology in a supervised test environment, where the Ministry of Justice can trial court software and hardware, where sellers can test their products to determine fitness for purpose and where new digital evidence presentation systems can be trialled. I admit that this is ambitious and is a long-term project.

At the launch, I described the centre as a "start-up" and noted that the centre is looking for individuals and organisations to partner with to support its research. 

David Harvey is a District Court judge known for his interest and expertise in law and technology. He has written the leading text on internet law in New Zealand along with numerous articles. He has presented papers on law and technology locally and internationally. 

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