Established in 2009 within the Faculty of Laws, the Department of Media, Communications & Technology Law promotes teaching and research in fields shaped by rapid technological, communicative and social change. Professor Kevin Aquilina was the Department’s founding Head, serving until 30 September 2020. The current Head of Department is Professor Mireille M Sant, who has held the role since 1 October 2020.
Technology law lies at the heart of the Department’s work. It is studied not simply as the application of established legal rules to new tools, but as a distinct and intellectually coherent field. Digital technologies can transform the environments in which rights are exercised, obligations are performed and behaviour is regulated. Software code, technical architecture and platform design can enable or constrain conduct alongside legislation, markets and social norms. Technological development may also outpace conventional legislative processes, operate across national borders and redistribute regulatory power among states, private organisations, technical systems and individual users.
The Department therefore examines the relationship between law and technology in both directions: how law governs the development and use of technology, and how technology changes the conditions in which law is created, interpreted, applied and enforced. This approach reflects the foundational insight developed by Lawrence Lessig in The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach: studying cyberspace as a distinct legal domain can illuminate wider questions about the nature, methods and limits of law as a form of regulation. These questions have become increasingly important with the development of artificial intelligence, algorithmic decision-making, distributed technologies, digital platforms and data-driven services.
The Department’s teaching and research encompass information technology, internet and e-commerce law; artificial intelligence and the law; blockchain and other emerging technologies; privacy and data protection; intellectual property; communications and digital-market regulation; media, press and broadcasting law; and gaming law. Its work also extends to medical and healthcare law, bioethics, mental health and capacity law, human rights in healthcare, digital health, arbitration, mediation and the Maltese legal system.
Through its teaching, research and supervision, the Department develops the specialist knowledge and critical perspectives needed to assess whether existing legal frameworks remain fit for purpose, to identify emerging regulatory gaps and to consider how innovation may be supported while safeguarding rights, accountability and the public interest. It contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across the University and hosts the Medicine and the Law Programme.