Prof Diane Rowland

BSc Kent, PhD Manchester, LLB Wales FHEA

My first degree is from the University of Kent where I graduated with a 1st class honours in Chemical Physics in 1972. An award from the Science Research Council enabled me to study for a PhD at Manchester which was awarded in 1976 for a thesis entitled 'Photoconductivity and carrier injection processes in anthracene'. This was followed by a postdoctoral appointment at UMIST after which I went on to work for the Health and Safety Executive acquiring a further qualification, a postgraduate diploma in Safety and Hygiene from the University of Aston, along the way. A career break and a move to Wales led to a change of direction and, in 1991, I graduated with 1st class honours in Law from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, as it was then. I was appointed to a lectureship in the Law Department in the same year, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1998 and have been Professor of Law since August 2004.

I have been actively involved in the work of BILETA, the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association and was a member of the national executive from 2000-2003, the Vice-Chair 2003-2006 and the Chair 2006-2009. I am also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Information Law and Technology (JILT), (to be relaunched in 2010 as the European Journal of Law and Technology) and the International Review of Law, Computers and Technology. I am also the IT Law editor of the Web Journal of Current Legal Issues (WebJCLI) and on the advisory board of the Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology.

I currently teach on undergraduate modules in European Law and Labour Law, for which I am the module coordinator, and also contribute to other modules in my areas of specialisation including Media Law, Contemporary Issues in Criminology and Crimes and Misconduct in Business and the Professions.
At postgraduate level I teach on both departmental and university level research training modules and also distance learning modules in Intellectual Property Rights in Computer Software and Related Products, On-line Content Regulation and Regulatory Issues and Computer Networks.
I have also supervised and continue to supervise a number of postgraduate students at both MPhil and PhD level whose theses are on topics within my areas of interest. I have also been activity in the wider academic teaching community as a member of the I currently teach on undergraduate modules in European Law and Labour Law, for which I am the module coordinator, and also contribute to other modules in my areas of specialisation including Media Law, Contemporary Issues in Criminology and Crimes and Misconduct in Business and the Professions.
At postgraduate level I teach on both departmental and university level research training modules and also distance learning modules in Intellectual Property Rights in Computer Software and Related Products, On-line Content Regulation and Regulatory Issues and Computer Networks.
I have also supervised and continue to supervise a number of postgraduate students at both MPhil and PhD level whose theses are on topics within my areas of interest. I have also been activity in the wider academic teaching community as a member of the Advisory Board from 2006-2009.

I am interested in two main areas of research; those of information technology and information law generally, and the law relating to health and safety at work. Within these apparently disparate subject areas commonalities can be identified which have allowed me to explore how common concepts are approached in different legal regimes and how these have influenced the relevant regulatory frameworks. My particular background (originally in academic science followed by a role in practical law enforcement giving me an insight into industrial processes and mechanisms) means that I am uniquely placed to take an interdisciplinary approach to these aspects of my research. Developments in information technology law continue to present challenges for many of the established and entrenched categories of law and provide fertile ground for academic and scholarly scrutiny. The tendency has been for each branch of law and each jurisdiction to react independently resulting in a fragmentary approach. Such an approach may bring neither the benefit of intellectual satisfaction nor practical utility. Legal developments in a number of jurisdictions have frequently been controversial and some of these aspects, problems and contradictions have been explored in the publications listed below.