Under the direction of Professor Franziska Boehm (Institute for Information, Telecommunications and Media Law) and Professor Rainer Böhme (Department of Information Systems), 16 students of law and information systems participated in a discussion about current legal issues of information security. The joint seminar took place at University of Münster’s Station of Marine Biology in Carolinensiel between August 25 and 29, 2014. The wide range of topics included the NSA’s spy program PRISM, the fight against cybercrime, aspects of cloud computing as well as anonymity on the Internet. Additionally, a guest student from Stanford presented a legal assessment of the cryptographic currency Bitcoin in the US.

In preparation for the event, teams of students of both departments worked on a common topic for their seminar theses. In this exercise, the students gained not only a comprehensive understanding of both legal and technical facets, but also discovered several connections and intersections between the two – at the first sight – distinct fields of studies. They learned that interdisciplinary methods are necessary to fully understand the phenomena of a society immersing in information technology. The constructive collaboration was perfected by the variety of presentations, which led to lively, multi-disciplinary and multi-lingual discussions. After the daily presentation and discussion sessions, the proximity of the North Sea allowed interested students to pursue a beginner’s course in wind surfing. Alternatively, students did other activities by the sea or around Neuharlingersiel. We are looking forward to continue and further intensify the successful cooperation between the Münster Law School and the Department of Information Systems.