Courses - Madrid, Spain

WEEK 1: June 5-8, 2023

Comparative Workplace Privacy Law - US & EU (1 credit)

INSTRUCTOR: Jason R. Bent, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Stetson University College of Law, Gulfport, Florida.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course will examine and compare workplace privacy protections for employees in the United States and the European Union.  The primary theme connecting the material is that Europe generally maintains stronger protections for workers than the US, including in employment security, expectations of privacy for workers, and positive legal protections for employees’ personal information and data.  We will examine possible explanations for this divergence between the US and EU approaches to workplace privacy.  Is the divergence attributable to fundamental cultural differences, such as the importance of individual worker dignity in Europe versus the primacy of liberty from governmental restrictions (on employers) in the US?   Is US law moving in a direction more protective of employees’ privacy?  Should it?  Or should the US allow the labor market to allocate workers’ privacy interests and employers’ competing interests in effective monitoring and control over the workplace?

The course will cover workers’ speech and association rights; employer surveillance and monitoring (audio, visual, GPS location, biometrics, and health) of employees; and legislative protections for employee data. While we will necessarily reference the Constitutional protections for public sector employees in the US, the course’s focus will be centered on private sector employees. The most important recent developments include the GDPR’s data privacy protections for employees in the EU, and the adoption of similarly protective laws in some US states, such as Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. A comparative examination of employee data privacy is particularly important for law students who plan to represent or join the legal or HR departments of multinational entities employing workers in different countries. For example, a US-based multinational employer is subject to the GDPR regarding the data it collects or processes for any workers based in EU countries.

 

WEEK 2: June 12-15, 2023

Cyberlaw (1 credit)

INSTRUCTOR: Roy Balleste, Professor of Law and Director of the Dolly & Homer Hand Law Library, Stetson University College of Law, Gulfport, Florida

COURSE DESCRIPTION: 

This course addresses the competencies needed to understand and apply a broad spectrum of laws in the cybersecurity profession, including international policy aspects. It introduces legal concepts, technical terms, and standards. The course also addresses risk management methodologies for assuring any organization's confidentiality, integrity, availability, and authentication. This course also explores network security, threats, vulnerabilities, risks, and analyzes major challenges in cyberspace, ascertaining constraints and countermeasures in dealing with cyber challenges in offensive and defensive cyber operations. The role of nation-states will be discussed against the backdrop of global geopolitics.