Note: Students enrolled in year-long externships must participate in the fall term Externship Seminar.
This course offers students the opportunity to develop interdisciplinary and legal research experience in a variety of areas of law, including domestic or international privacy law, domestic telecommunications law, domestic or international national security law, and information and communication technologies & international human rights law. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. Our research includes: investigating digital espionage against civil society, documenting Internet filtering and other technologies and practices that impact freedom of expression online, analyzing privacy, security, and information controls of popular applications, and examining transparency and accountability mechanisms relevant to the relationship between corporations and state agencies regarding personal data and other surveillance activities. This externship provides students with exposure to legal issues arising in the areas of privacy law, telecommunications law, national security law, and information and communication technologies & international human rights law.
Students will have the opportunity to develop the following skills:
- drafting legal research memoranda,
- compiling and interpreting empirical data,
- applying legal analysis in interpreting such data,
- conducting policy and legal research for Citizen Lab reports,
- writing and editing such reports.
Registration process:
To register for this course, please send an email to Sara Faherty at sara.faherty@utoronto.ca with a current CV, a short academic writing sample of max. 5 pages (an extract of a piece of writing is permissible), and a statement of interest including the following information:
- Why you wish to enroll in the Citizen Lab externship program;
- Your interest and experience in domestic or international privacy law, domestic telecommunications law, domestic or international national security law, and information and communication technologies & international human rights law;
- A list of courses you have taken that are relevant to the Citizen Lab’s practice areas and a brief explanation as to how they are relevant.
Students must apply to the clinic by the deadline for course selection before the lottery. Students will be interviewed for inclusion in the externship.
Note: Enrollment in this externship is conditional. The Records Office will add the externship to the student's course selection once participation is confirmed by the externship instructor. In the meantime, students must select sufficient credits for the term/year. Students approved for the externship will have the opportunity to adjust their credits before the add/drop deadline.
