Faculty of Law, Haifa University - Research Centers

The Center for Law and Technology

The Haifa Center for Law & Technology

The Haifa Center for Law and Technology (HCLT) is a renowned interdisciplinary research institute. It is the first center in Israel dedicated to the study of the interconnection between law and technology.

HCLT is based at the Faculty of Law, University of Haifa on the northern coast of Israel. The main goal of the center is to promote research activities in the fields of Law and Technology and Intellectual Property. HCLT further seeks to promote dialogue between academics, innovators, policymakers and businesses, in order to establish the scientific foundation for legislation to address new technologies.

The center conducts workshops and conferences, and promotes research activities by faculty and students, judges, lawyers, jurists, decision makers and the general public. With five full time faculty members, three full time faculty fellows, international visiting professors and a group of adjunct faculty, HCLT offers a wide range of courses and seminars in Intellectual Property, Cyberlaw, Law and Innovation, Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), Cybersecurity Law, Big Data, and Information Law at graduate and post graduate level. Graduate programs include a unique LL.M. program in Law and Technology.

The Center has established a world-wide reputation in its field and enjoys a wide network of international collaborators. It is part of the Global Network of Centers for Internet and Society (NoC) initiative: a collaborative initiative among academic institutions with a focus on interdisciplinary research on the development, social impact, policy implications, and legal issues concerning the Internet, hosted by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. It serves as one of the Israeli representatives (with CCLP at the University of Haifa) of the European Hub of the NoC. Domestically, HCLT benefits from collaboration with three major centers for the study of the information environment located at the University of Haifa: The Center for Cyber Law & Policy (CCLP), The Institute for Interdisciplinary Applications of Computer Science and the Center for Internet Research. In addition, HCLT facilitates Creative Commons Israel.

Research and Studies

The Haifa Center for Law and Technology promotes research related to law & technology and innovation law and policy to establish the scientific foundation for policymaking which concerns new technologies. Areas of research include timely issues such as: Patent Law and Policy, Online Dispute Resolution, Data Protection and Information Privacy, Open Access, Electronic Commerce, Digital Culture, Economic Analysis of Information Technology, Network Nuetrality and Standard Settings, Legal Aspects of Biotechnology. In conducting its research projects, the Haifa Center for Law and Technology collaborates with both Israeli and International Research Centers, Think-Tanks, and Governmental Institutions. To the Research Partners page. Encouraging Innovation in Cyber Security.

A Partial List of Research Projects:

Encouraging Innovation in Cyber Security – The purpose of the study is to examine the premise of the Government’s involvement in the promotion of innovation, while presenting criticism of these assumptions in light of the challenges of the cyber world.

The Cyber Civil War: The Roles of Individuals in Cyber Warfare.

The Cyber ForumThe Cyber Forum is a joint project of the HCLT and the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa, dedicated to the study of cyber regulation. The main goal of the Forum is to promote research activities in the fields of Cyberspace, Extreme Conditions and Law and Technology.

Open Science: Legal Strategies for Promoting Access to Scientific Publications The purpose of this study is to identify legal barriers on access to scientific resources and to provide a coherent legal policy to be adopted by various policy makers in Israel.

Commercialization of Governmental RnD Sector’s Outputs Through Patents -This project seeks to lay down a wide ranging infrastructure for the crystallization of a scientific policy concerning the transfer of knowledge originating in public funded research, while focusing on the governmental RnD sector.

Cyber Terrorism Project – The current research first goal is to define cyber terror after a comprehensive theoretical research. The research will also examine by theoretical research the current professional literature regarding the legal ways to deal with cyber terror.

Defensive Democracy Legal Measures for Cyber Protection and the Protection of Constitutional Rights (Funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology n Space)

Challenging The Black Box: On the Accountability of Algorithmic Copyright Enforcement – Lessons From Algorithmic Copyright Enforcement by Intermediaries.

National Library Digitization Project The Clinic is working in collaboration with the National Library of Israel (NL) to address legal impediments to the digitization of the NL collection and to explore some of the policy issues related to open access in the digital era.

Creative Commons (CC) Israel Project – Creative Commons (CC) is a world nonprofit corporation that provides free licenses as an alternative to the conservative copyright legal regime. In this project the Law and Technology Clinic delivers lectures on copyright law and the CC alternative.

The New Enforcement Regime: Enforcing Copyrights Online and Personal Freedoms – The research will examine the enforcement regime in Israel in relation to the obligations imposed on intermediaries involved with the Internet to deploy blocking, filtering and preventive technologies in order to enforce copyrights.

Mapping the Frontiers of Governance in Social Media -The research project addresses the forms of governance emerging within Social Media Networks as novel technological and social spaces

Facilitating Collaboration in Stem Cell Research Through Intellectual Property The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic basis for designing a research and development (R&D) policy framework, and to facilitate knowledge transfer in the area of stem cell research

Access to Knowledge in Higher Education – Launched in 2009, this project aims to facilitate the fair use of copyrighted materials for teaching and research in institutions of higher education.