Sem; Public Information Law & Policy (LAW-700-002)
Vaughn
Meets: 03:00 PM - 04:50 PM (W) - Room 504
Enrolled: 10 / Limit: 14
Notices
There are no notices at this time.
Description
What is the future of freedom of information provisions in the United States and in the world? What changes have taken place in the Obama administration? How is Freedom of Information related to transparency reforms? This seminar addresses the federal Freedom of Information Act, whistleblower protection and selected statutes in other countries. In doing so, the seminar seeks to give students an understanding of the most salient aspects of these laws and the theories underlying them. The discussion of whistleblower protection also examines the role of whistleblower protection in the fight against corruption and the development of whistleblower protections by international organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Bank.
Alan Westin described democratic and authoritarian governments based on information policy. In democratic governments, citizens have access to large amount of information about the government and its activities while the ability of government to acquire information about citizens is limited. In authoritarian governments, the activities of the government are secret while the government possesses large amounts of information about citizens and their activities. The seminar explores this information-based definition of authoritarian and democratic governments. In this context, the seminar examines the privacy protections provided by the Federal Privacy Act. The seminar is a writing seminar and students may use it to satisfy the upper-level writing requirement. Students who have already satisfied that requirement can write a shorter paper. Topics do not have to relate to freedom of information laws or to whistleblower protection and a broad range of topics would fit under the rubric, information law and policy. The latter third of the course will be devoted to the presentation and discussion of research papers. Each member of the seminar will read all the papers and the discussion will be a collaborative endeavor to enable each student to produce the best paper possible.Textbooks and Other Materials
The textbook information on this page was provided by the instructor. Students should use this information when considering purchases from the AU Campus Store or other vendors. Students may check to determine if books are currently available for purchase online.
No textbooks are required for this course.
First Class Readings
First Class: Introduction and Overview -- There is no reading assignment for this class.
Syllabus
Use your MyAU username and password to access the syllabus in the following format(s):
Adobe Acrobat (PDF)