Teaching Information Privacy Law

Information and Resources

TeachPrivacy

Teaching Information Privacy Law

TEACHING INFORMATION PRIVACY LAW

Information and Resources by Professor Daniel J. Solove

This page is designed to be a resource for professors and practitioners who teach privacy law or who are interested in teaching privacy law.  For those who have been teaching the course, you might find new ideas for your courses and materials to use. The video of various professors discussing how they approach their classes is especially insightful.  If you are new to teaching the course, there’s a lot of information here that might help you develop your course.  Privacy law is an immensely rewarding course to teach. If you’re already teaching it, I am grateful, as I believe all law schools should be offering it. If you’re considering teaching it, please don’t hesitate. I’m confident you’ll love teaching it, and your students will benefit greatly.

Why Teach Information Privacy Law?

A while ago, I wrote a post about the virtues of teaching privacy law.  Although the post is old, it’s still relevant today:

Letter to Deans re Privacy Law Curriculum

I led several efforts by a group of leading privacy law professors and practitioners to inform and urge law school deans to add courses in privacy law and hire professors in the field.

I also wrote this blog post about what I think is important for a robust privacy law curriculum:

Video: Teaching Information Privacy Law

In this video (1 hour), eight law professors (including me) discuss our privacy law classes. What is so fascinating is how varied the classes are in topics and approaches. I wish I could take all of these classes. The video also includes interesting perspectives from professors who have taught the class for a very long period of time. For example, Professor Anita Allen has taught the class since the 1980s, and I along with Professor Lior Strahilevitz have been teaching the class since the early 2000s.

Privacy Law Centers, Programs, Conferences, and Academics

Below are resources about privacy law centers, programs, conferences, and academics.

  • Privacy Law Centers and Programs
    • The page above gathers together the various privacy law programs and centers at law schools.
  • IAPP – Privacy Curricula in US Law Schools
    • This report from IAPP provides survey data about privacy curricula in law schools.
  • Privacy Law Scholars Conference
    • The Privacy Law Scholars Conference is the main conference for privacy law academics. I founded this conference in 2008 along with Professor Christopher Hoofnagle and ran it for nearly 15 years. It’s now run by a committee of professors. The conference is interdisciplinary; beyond law professors, the event includes professors of computer science, sociology, communications, economics, and many other fields.

Privacy Law Casebooks

There are now several casebooks in the field. The leading books are:

The first casebook was Richard Turkington and Anita Allen’s Privacy Law: Cases and Materials (West 1999). Subsequently, after the passing of Richard Turkington, Anita Allen wrote an entirely different casebook, Privacy Law and Society (West 2007).

Casebooks Allen Turkington 01

Professor Allen has said that she is not planning to update her casebook because she wants to focus on other projects.

I published my casebook, Information Privacy Law (Aspen 2003). Aspen wouldn’t give me the traditional red hardcover; instead, the book was published as a small seminar paperback. But the book sold well, so starting with the second edition, the book was elevated to a red cover book.

Information Privacy Law Cover 1st Ed 03

My book is now in its 8th edition, and I have many spinoff casebooks that include parts of the main casebook.  Click here to find out more about the entire lineup of books.

Cover Information Privacy Law Paperbacks 02

Books and Media

Many teachers of privacy law assign other books about privacy, as well as show films and episodes of TV shows. Below are some compilations I produced that might have some useful ideas.

 

Other Resources

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About Professor Solove and TeachPrivacy

Daniel Solove Data Security Training Professor Daniel J. Solove is a law professor at George Washington University Law School and the leading expert on privacy and data security law. He has taught privacy law every year since 2000, has published 10 books and more than 50 articles, including the leading textbook on information privacy law and a short guidebook on the subject. His LinkedIn blog has more than 1 million followers. Click here for more information about Professor Solove.

TeachPrivacy provides HIPAA training, privacy awareness training, information security awareness training, phishing training, FERPA training, PCI training, as well as training on many other privacy and security topics.  TeachPrivacy was founded by Professor Solove, who is deeply involved in the creation of all training programs because he believes that training works best when made by subject-matter experts and by people with extensive teaching experience.