A Laboratory Mixing Law and Digital Freedom
A new Bocconi Legal Clinic that stems from a collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that supports Wikipedia and other open source projects. The initiative will allow students in the Bocconi School of Law to confront actual cases, working closely with the Foundation's lawyers on issues at the intersection of law and technology.
Selected students will be involved in legal research on controversial issues in various jurisdictions on the protection of freedom of expression and intellectual property in the digital world, contributing to the writing of unbiased case studies and also participating in training sessions with Wikimedia professionals. This is a unique opportunity to apply skills learned in the classroom to global contexts with high public impact.
“This initiative,” stresses Pietro Sirena, Dean of the School of Law, “represents a concrete example of how the university trains legal experts capable of operating globally, collaborating with operators at the forefront of online rights protection.”
The new legal clinic was created in the context of the LLM in Technology and Automated System, directed by Oreste Pollicino, by Francesco Paolo Patti and, as far as the dual program with King's College London is concerned, coordinated by Federica Paolucci.
This new collaboration is part of an already highly articulated ecosystem of legal clinics, coordinated by Melissa Miedico: from the one inside the Bollate correctional facility to the legal desk in the San Siro district, from the legal clinic supporting B4i startups to the one on the mechanisms of global trade and investment in collaboration with TradeLab and the UASI (Ukraine Support and Information), activated by BLEST - Bocconi Lab in European Studies. Each clinic was created to offer a field experience in which the student implements law as a tool for social, economic or civic impact.
The project with Wikimedia thus reinforces the international and civic vocation of Bocconi legal education, confirming that law is not only a subject of study, but also a lever to understand and guide change in an increasingly digital and interconnected society.