Future, law, education and technology: WoW, have we forgotten something?

Abstract

Welcome to the special BILETA edition of the International Review of Law, Computers & Technology. In 2016, the 31st annual British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association conference took place at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Law, Criminology and Political Science, UK. To those who are not familiar with BILETA, in April 1986 this now close-knit association was born with the aim of promoting the use of information technology in legal education. BILETA is an open forum for intellectual debate on the relationships between the pace of technological change, legislation and the legal education that is accessible to a wide audience of academics, researchers, practitioners and students. The conference took as its title: ‘Future, law, education and technology: WoW, have we forgotten something?’, a theme which attracted 120 speakers and participants interested in developments to the concept that users have the right to request that personal information be removed from the internet, that is, the ‘right to be forgotten’, and the School’s extracurricular activity ‘War of Words – WoW’. The two-day conference, which was organised by Edina Harbinja and this author, was extremely successful, resulting in an interesting and intellectually challenging event, which was also very enjoyable. In addition to famous motivational speakers, such as Professor Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University, Professor Lilian Edwards of University of Strathclyde and Professor Dan Katz of Chicago-Kent College of Law, there were other stimulating talks and debates, including the Panel on Surveillance and the Investigatory Powers Bill, a Google supported workshop on the right to be forgotten, a Google PhD workshop, and an open forum on Research Excellence Framework, IT law and legal education.