I am in the process of applying to law schools and will start in the
fall 2003 term. The ultimate reason for my law school education is to
prepare me for a career in a privacy advocacy, working at either a
public interest organization, such as Electronic Privacy Information
Center (EPIC), the ACLU, the Center for Democracy and Technology
(CDT), or any number of similar organizations; or, in a governmental
regulatory position (e.g. a State AG's office).

The two most important considerations for me are:

[1] Overall strength and reputation of the law school

[2] Presence and strength of professors and/or specialized curriculum
in the area(s) of privacy law (electronic and Internet privacy,
specifically), computer crime law, and “cyberspace” law in general

Obviously, [1] is easy to discern. However, I need more information on
[2]. Two schools which have excellent programs covering the areas
mentioned in [2] are both Harvard (Berkman Center) and Berkeley
(Center for Law and Technology). I will be applying to both of these
as “long shots,” however, I need more realistic applications as well.

Hence, my question is: “Which law schools have either professors
and/or formal programs, academic “centers”, or specialized course
curriculum in the areas mentioned above (privacy/computer
crime/cyberspace)?” As an example of well-known individual professors
working in the field, Michael Fromkin
(http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/welcome.html) teaches at the
University of Florida, and will alone be enough for me to consider
applying there.

If possible, please try to limit your answers to those schools that
are in Tier 1 and 2. For example, John Marshall [Chicago] has a
well-known cyberspace program; however their “ranking” [however
irrelevant one might think those rankings are] is too poorly regarded
for my consideration. If you’re not roughly familiar with the
rankings, don’t worry about it, and certainly don’t spend much time
researching them (or email me directly if you want the list).

Please include URLs to specific academic centers and especially to
specific professors and any articles from where you derived your
answers.

Please post or email any clarifying questions (I should be able to
respond in near real-time).

Healthy tip promised for a helpful answer!

Thanks!

Hello—great question!

It would seem that the main academic centers for cyberlaw and its
various permutations are the ones you mentioned, Berkman and Berkeley,
but also George Mason (tier one) and  Temple (tier 2).  I identified
several other schools in which you might be interested.

I did several broad searches:
Cyberlaw
Law schools
Specialties
Cyberspace law
etc.

And I did many individual searches, by putting in the names of schools
and words like cyberlaw, internet law, democracy, etc.

I used some sites that presented aggregated lists of institutions (see
the end of the report) but also tried to look for every tier one
school's programs individually, and for tier two school programs by
reference.

You asked for two things, mainly:
A.  Law schools with professors in the field of cyberlaw/privacy
and/or
B.) Formal programs, specialized curriculum, academic centers, etc.

As to part A of your question, it would seem that most every law
school these days either has or is implementing courses of this type. 
 There are many sites on the web that try to list these courses, but
it would seem that if you choose a decent law school anywhere, there
will be courses available.  But you could look at sites like the ones
below, that attempt to catalog cyberlaw/intellectual property/computer
crime/electronic privacy programs:
http://faculty.lls.edu/manheim/cyberlawsurvey2.htm
http://www.law.wayne.edu/litman/classes/cyber/courses.html

As to part B, I have endeavored to put together a list of academic
centers and formal programs (more than just individual courses, in
other words) that cover this subject area.  For a ranking source, I
used the 2003 U.S News & World Report Law School list at: 
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/brief/lawrank_brief.php


Tier 1:

Yale
Ranking:  1
Information Society Project
“Yale Law School’s Center for the Study of Telecommunications,
Internet, and Intellectual Property Law.”
http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/

Stanford
Ranking: 2
Stanford offers a specialized degree (LLM) in Law, Science, and
Technology:
Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology
http://lawtech.stanford.edu/
 “- to address the many questions arising from the increasingly
prominent role that science and technology play in our economy and
culture”

Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/
This center is part of the LST program.
“In the heart of the Silicon Valley, legal doctrine is emerging that
will determine the course of civil rights and technological innovation
for decades to come. Stanford Law School Center for Internet and
Society (CIS), a part of the Law, Science and Technology Program, is
at the apex of this evolving area of law.”

Harvard
Ranking: 3
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/

University of California – Berkeley
Ranking:  7
Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/bclt/

Duke
Ranking : 12
Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Society
This is apparently a school club, but one that indicates a good deal
of interest and activity at Duke in cyberlaw.
http://www.law.duke.edu/student/act/intprop/clubinfo.htm

University of California – Los Angeles
Ranking: 16
UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/hp.html

Boston College
Ranking:  22
No academic center that I can discern, but they host a major annual
symposium:
The Intellectual Property and Technology Forum
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/


George Washington
Rank: 26
I don’t think it’s a formal center, but the school is proud of its
faculty and curriculum in intellectual property and technology, and
they lay it out for you on the Web:
http://www.law.gwu.edu/tech/default.asp

University of Washington
Ranking: 28
Center for Law, Commerce & Technology
http://www.law.washington.edu/lct/

George Mason
Ranking:  47
National Center for Technology & Law (The Tech Center)
http://techcenter.gmu.edu/


Tier 2:

Chicago-Kent School of Law  (Illinois Institute of Technology)
Center for Law and Computers
http://www.kentlaw.edu/clc/

Temple
Cyberspace Law Institute
Organization directed by a Temple professor—the website seems to be
under construction, and perhaps so is the institute.  It looks worth
investigating—contact information is given for the principal, David
Post, and there are lists of papers and professors associated with the
Institute
http://www.cli.org



For more information about cyberlaw programs, see:

“Law Schools Can't Meet the Demand for Courses
on Internet Issues”, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2000.
http://techcenter.gmu.edu/about/in_the_news/chronicle_sept00.pdf

Pathfinders: Topics in International Law (Internet Public Library)
(Cached version)
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:_HZksJKzRQEC:www.ipl.org/div/pf/netlaw.html+cyberlaw+academic+institutes&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Mealey’s Rankings:  Academic Centers
(Mealey’s is a publisher of legal reference material)
http://www.mealeys.com/links.html

E.B. Williams Library (Georgetown)
http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/intl/guides/cyberspace/cyber_3.html

Sidley, Austin, & Brown links:  CyberSpace
http://www.sidley.com/cyberlaw/links/links.asp#CyberSpace%20Law

I hope that answers your question.  Please let me know if I can help
with clarification.

I'm making good progress on this--I should have a report for you later today.