PUBLIC DESIGN WORKSHOP

NYU LAW SCHOOL, SEPTEMBER 13-14,- 2002

Niva Elkin-Koren
(elkiniva@research.haifa.ac.il)
Faculty of Law, Room 353b
University of Haifa
Mount Carmel
Haifa 31905
Israel
+972-4-8240638

Title of Presentation: Seizing Power in the Information Environment: The Comeback of the State
By Michael D. Birnhack & Niva Elkin Koren

IT and the opportunities it created for innovation and access to information replayed some old controversies regarding the inter-relationships between the nation-state, the market and civil society. One issue that is vigorously debated in legal commentary about the Internet focuses on Internet governance and the role of the state in online self-governance and private ordering.

After September 11, the players in the information environment are busy repositioning themselves. The comprehensive legislation that followed the tragic events (such as the USA PATRIOT Act and the European initiated Convention on Cyber-Crime) reflects an attempt of the State to reenter the arena. In the September 11 aftermath, the State takes over the ready-made, quite-centralized, private power. This paper is an attempt to trace this intriguing shift of power, and analyze its significance for designing the information environment.

Dr.Niva Elkin-Koren is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Haifa School of Law. She received her LL.B from Tel-Aviv University School of Law in 1989, her LL.M from Harvard Law School in 1991, and her S.J.D from Stanford Law School in 1995. She teaches Contract Law, Intellectual Property, Electronic Commerce and related courses and seminars. Her research focuses on the legal institutions that facilitate private and public control over the production of information. She has written and spoken extensively about the privatization of information policy, copyright law and democratic theory, the effects of cyberspace on the economic analysis of law, the regulation of search engines¹ market, liability of information intermediaries, and on the significance of the public domain. She was a visiting professor at Villanova University School of Law during 1997, and at the George Washington University Law School during 2001.

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