On 20 November 2012 Convoco hosted a lecture on the phenomenon of hacking.
The evening started with an introduction by Dr. Flick. She started by putting the topic of the evening into the broader context of the Convoco topic of the year: collective law infringement. Then she pointed out the fact that the sense of right and wrong seems to be shifting in our society. Furthermore she highlighted the threat hackers pose to society through their technological brilliance combined with their ideological motivation.
The introduction was followed by Andrew Murray’s lecture entitled “Hacking Away at the Rule of Law: Why Online Communities Hack despite its Illegality”.
Murray is Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and an expert in the emerging disciplines of cyber-law and regulation. In his lecture Prof. Murray first drew a picture of different types of hackers and current developments in the cyber-world. He then defined the limits of our legal system with regard to hacking, in particular because of the non-existence of borders in cyber-space.