Learning objectives

The course is included in the learning area on Law, New Technologies and Sustainability. It analyses the most controversial aspects of the criminal law in the fields of the Information and communication Technologies (ICT), e.g. cybercrime and computer crime, from a national, comparative and supranational perspective.
The course provides students with the knowledge of the main legal sources of the criminal law in this field, the criminal liability for cybercrimes and computer crime, the legislative techniques adopted in this field.
The learning and teaching method is based on an IBL approach, problem solving, team working, cooperative and peer to peer learning.
Students will also acquire the ability to face and solve practical problems typical of the professional context in which they will operate, thus orienting their competence to the goal of contractual compliance and to the prevention of the judicial conflicts. Students will also be able to verify the practical and applicative consequences of the theoretical and regulatory framework and to set, in written and oral form (and also through group work, written exercises and the method of Problem Based Solving - PBS), the solution to concrete issues, using the appropriate and specific disciplinary vocabulary, adopting the correct lines of reasoning and argumentation, and formulating autonomous judgments. The teaching method used is functional to the continuous learning and updating of acquired knowledge.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Students on the master's degree course must have passed the Criminal Law 1 exam; those of the three-year degree course the examination of Criminal Law

Program

The Program is divided in six parts:
1. Analysis of the most recent criminal phenomena in the technological context regarding the illicit use of Internet (online defamations, childpornography, child-grooming, social networks and social media abuse, cyber-attacks, cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare) and of the technological instruments in the fight cybercrime.
2. Analysis of the international and european legal sources on cybercrime, with particular attention to the Council of Europe Reccomendations (1989) and Cybercrime Convention (2001), the EU Directives on Childpornography (2011), Cyber-attacks (2013), NIS (2016) and the EU Cybersecurity Act (2019)
3. Analysis of the most important criminal offences of the Italian Penal Code, taking into account the cybercrimes systematic, in particular: artt. 392, 491 bis, 495 bis, 595, 600 ter, 600 quater, 600 quater-1, 600 quinquies, 609 undecies, included the new art. 612 ter, 615 ter, 615 quater, 615 quinquies, 616, 617 quater, 617 quinquies, 617 sexies, 623 bis, 635 bis-quinquies, 640 ter, 640 quinquies
4. Analysis of the criminal offences provided by special laws: Privacy Code (d.lgs. 196 /2003) after the Regulation 2016/679/Ue (GDPR); Cyberbullism; Copyright Protection.
5. Analysis of the most important questions on the Internet Service Providers criminal liability and the criminal liability of bloggers, website managers, online newspapers, user-generator-content sites.
6. Analysis of the technological investigations provided by the Italian Law

Bibliography

Didactic methods

The course includes lectures in the classroom, which will be recorded and available on the Moodle platform. Class materials, including presentations, videos, scientific articles and case studies, will be published in the course Moodle. Students who will not attend the lessons are invited to contact the teachers for the indication of the useful material and for the support necessary for the preparation of the exam. Erasmus students must arrange an appointment with the teachers in order to select an individual study plan, which also takes into account the country of origin. All students can use the "Cybercrime Observatory" portal (http://sites.les.univr.it/cybercrime/). The reference text is indicated in the "Books" section: Cadoppi Alberto, Canestrari Stefano, Manna Adelmo, Papa Michele (edited by), Cybercrime. Treaty of Criminal Law, Utet, Turin, 2019.
The Chapters useful for the preparation of the final exam are specified below.
In Part I:
Chap. II - Lorenzo Picotti, Diritto penale e tecnologie informatiche: una visione d'insieme
Chap. III - Roberto Flor , Cyber-criminality: le fonti internazionali ed europee
Chap. IV - Roberto Flor, La legge penale nello spazio, fra evoluzione tecnologica e difficoltà applicative
Chap. VI - Giandomenico Salcuni, Le falsità informatiche

In Part II
Chap. X - Stefano Delsignore, La tutela dei minori e la pedopornografia telematica: ì reati dell'art. 600-ter c.p.
Chap. XIII - Ivan Salvadori, Sexting, minori e diritto penale
Chap. XVII – lvan Salvadori, I reati contro la riservatezza informatica
Chap. XIX - Alberto Cappellini, I delitti contro l'integrità dei dati, dei programmi e dei sistemi informatici
Chap. XX - Gherardo Minicucd, Le frodi informatiche
Chap. XXVI, limited to paragraphs 7 to 12: Roberto Flor, La tutela penale dei diritti d'autore e connessi.
Singular parts or chapters may be replaced by other readings to be agreed with the teachers

Learning assessment procedures

The final exam consists of an oral examination. Intermediate tests are possible, according to procedures to be established.
Students attending classes have the possibility to write a short paper on specific topics of the program, upon agreement with the professors. The paper will be discussed during the oral examination and will constitute part of the program.

ERASMUS students are kindly requested to contact the Professors at the beginning of the course, in order the possibility to agree on the exam’s program and the parts of reference books to study.

Evaluation criteria

The final exam aims at verifying:
• the level of achievement of the learning outcomes previously identified
• the linguistic accuracy
• the argumentative, reasoning and problem-solving skills
• the ability to connect systematically the knowledge achieved

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

Grades are awarded on a scale from 18 to 30, where 30 is the highest grade and 18 is the lowest grade to pass the exam. In case of an excellent knowledge, a high level of linguistic accuracy and an argumentative, reasoning and problem-solving capacity the candidate may earn the highest grade with “cum laude” honor.

Exam language

Italiano