What is the LL.M programm "Information and Media Law" about, Mr. Holzweber?

by Markus Holzweber and Lucia Mack

More than 20 years ago, the university course in Information and Media Law was established as a start-up project. 20 years after its foundation, the modern social changes of the last few years show us why the course is more important than ever and why it has become a success.

Since 1999, the university course "Information and Media Law" at the University of Vienna has offered a postgraduate education for lawyers at the intersection of IT, media, business and law. By the end of the 1990s at the latest, it was clear that the new legal problems associated with the establishment of the internet were difficult to grasp with traditional legal methods. Standard legal studies did not adequately prepare students for their solution. Outside the university, the digitalization in the field of law gained considerable momentum with the introduction of digital databases and information systems into the everyday legal work.

The postgraduate program “Information and Media Law”, originally a joint initiative of RDB, MANZ, ORAC and the University of Vienna started for the first time in 1999 after about two years of preparation - first in premises of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights and the Juridicum, then in premises of the MANZ publishing house at Kohlmarkt (Vienna, 1st district). Since then, more than 300 students have participated and, as a visible expression of their qualification, have earned the academic degree "Master of Laws (LL.M.)". They are successfully active at all the interfaces of information and media law and are part of a competence network that is unique in Europe.

Information and media law is one of the areas of law that is subject to constant change due to the rapid development of technologies, innovation and digitalization. Accordingly, the University of Vienna has been offering two new certificate courses in order to prepare students for these changes in the best possible way:

•             IT-LAW Update

The certificate course "IT-Law Update" offers graduates of the university course "Information and Media Law" as well as members of the scientific interest group IT-LAW.AT an update in IT law. At the end of the program, participants will be able to classify, evaluate and solve legal issues arising from current developments in information technologies.

•             Digital Communication and Law

The English-language certificate course "Digital Communication and Law" provides an overview of the digital transformations in media and law beyond national borders. In this certificate course - which is held in cooperation with Medienhaus Wien - internationally recognised experts teach accordingly. The certificate course "Digital Communication and Law" will start for the first time in winter semester 2021 in online format. An intensive week in February is planned in presence mode.

Contact us: informationsrecht@univie.ac.at