The Volokh Conspiracy

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New Computer Crime Law Casebook Edition

I have posted the first 30 pages for interested readers.

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West recently published the fourth edition of my Computer Crime Law casebook. The first edition came out in 2006, followed by the second edition in 2009 and the third edition in 2013. This field moves really quickly, and the pace of change seems to be accelerating, so there is lots of new material in the new edition.

With West's permission, I have posted an excerpt of the book on SSRN to give readers a flavor of what's inside. The posted excerpt includes the Preface, the Table of Contents, and the first thirty pages of the main text. You can download it here. From the marketing blurb:

This casebook covers every aspect of crime in the digital age. Topics range from computer fraud laws and international computer crimes to Internet surveillance laws and the Fourth Amendment. It is part traditional casebook, part treatise. It both explains the law and presents many new and important questions of law that courts are only now beginning to consider. The book is suited either for a 3-credit course or a 2-credit seminar. It will appeal both to criminal law and procedure professors and those interested in cyberlaw or law and technology. No advanced knowledge of computers and the Internet is required or assumed.

The fourth edition of Kerr's popular computer crime law text includes many updates since the third edition in 2012. New cases and materials address topics such as encryption, the computer hacking laws, Internet surveillance, the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, hacking back, drafting computer warrants, the All Writs Act, the law of accessing foreign-stored e-mail, and the international application of the Fourth Amendment. The chapter on the Fourth Amendment has been substantially rewritten and reorganized to reflect the increasing integration of the Internet to computer search and seizure law.

I'll have lots of updates for the next annual supplement, no doubt, including summaries of the recently-passed CLOUD Act and the forthcoming decision in Carpenter v. United States. I'm working on a short essay explaining the new CLOUD Act, too. I'll post it on SSRN as soon as I have a draft ready, and I'll blog a link to it then.