welcome 2014.

The course international law of contemporary media of the University of Bern will take place in the spring term 2014 (starting on 17 February), every Tuesday from 2 to 4 pm (in the University's Main Building, Room 115). 
The course will bring your ECTS account 5 credits. The teaching language as well as that of the materials will be English.
I warmly welcome you and look forward to an engaging and interesting course.

Description
The course provides an introduction to the current issues in the regulation of media at the international level, covering the pertinent human rights norms, the rules of the World Trade Organization, and the relevant topics of international telecommunications, Internet governance and intellectual property law. New digital media build the specific focus of the course.
The course is structured into 13 weekly two-hour lectures with two interactive sessions in a debate format. Each student will be asked to participate in an interactive session at least once.
This participation will be assessed and constitutes 30% of the final note.
The final exam is oral and 'open-book'.

Participation
The course is primarily directed at students of law at the master level. It is however also particularly suitable for media and communications studies students, who would like to learn more about the international regulation of media, or who share a special interest in new media and their policy and legal implications.

For a non-binding enrolment in the course, please send a short note to Tobias Naef: tobias.naef@iew.unibe.ch. 

Literature
There is no particular script or textbook needed for the course. The relevant to each session readings will be provided electronically. All links will be made available here on this blog.

The books listed on the right-hand side of the blog are not necessarily part of the reading list. They are however relevant to the topics dealt with in the course and of potential interest to students eager to know more about digital media and their economic, social, political and cultural implications. All these books are made available under the creative commons licence and can be downloaded for non-commercial use free of charge.