Cecilia Magnusson Sjöberg talks about the intricacies of cyber law

 

 

“I fell into cyber law by chance," says Professor Magnusson Sjöberg. "I applied for a job as an assistant to Professor Peter Seipel at the newly established IRI back in the early eighties and got quickly involved in the emerging questions of the Law and IT as computers rapidly took over the way we work in the eighties and nineties."

As head of the IRI, Magusson Sjöberg is an extremely busy professor investigating the complex relationship between the Law and IT. As well as research, teaching courses, and supervising doctoral theses, Professor Magnusson Sjöberg also spends considerable time liaising with the business community and local authorities, sharing her expertise in how legal rules can be applied to IT.

"Much of the work I do involves showing people how to design effective computer systems. You have to be aware of the legal issues involved before you develop, say, an e-voting system. I liaise with managers, technicians, designers and other work groups," explains Magnusson Sjöberg.

Professor Magnusson Sjöberg also works hard to bring her colleagues at the university up to date on what the Swedish principle of 'Rights of Access' means in terms of data storage.

“In practical terms this can mean explaining why it’s important to archive all the email you write and receive.”

Through the work Magnusson Sjöberg has undertaken for Stockholm University's Personnel Department she's also made colleagues and other university staff aware of the legal ramifications digital media have for a public university.

“It’s fundamentally important that we as a public institution follow the law. There’s greater interest from staff nowadays about the issues concerning digital storage of personal details at the university. Part of the work I do involves advising people on what this means in practical terms."

Although Stockholm’s Law & Informatics Research Unit is the only one of its kind in Sweden, there is considerable international interest in the work being done by Professor Magnusson Sjöberg and her colleagues.

"We run an international Masters degree on the Law and IT. We've had students from over sixty-five countries attend the course in the last few years," says Magnusson Sjöberg.

Magnusson Sjöberg believes the considerable interest from students abroad isn’t just because education in Sweden is free.

"What makes us unique is that part of the course is theoretical, covering IT Law for IT professionals. But we also look at the way computer systems can be designed to reflect the Law. Students get an excellent training in how to manage business systems from a legal perspective."

With the internet still in its infancy, Magnusson Sjöberg believes this is just the start of an extremely important phase of the Law.

"As the internet develops and there's increasing demand for legal standards across the web, there's greater interest in legal awareness from the IT community."

Is it any wonder, then, that Law and Informatics Research is one of the leading research areas at the university?

Interview and text: Jon Buscall