Improving access to the legal profession

Dr Sara Correia-Hopkins held a session as a guest speaker on Saturday 8 Oct 2022 with the title - Hacking: When Is It Legal and Ethical? at the invitation of BVL (formerly Big Voice London), as part of their the BVL Model Law Commission 2022 project. BVL is a youth legal and social mobility charity which engages young people from non-traditional backgrounds in law and legal policy, with the aim of improving access to the profession. For more information on BVL, please visit www.bvl.org.uk.

In the session Sara led, young people learned about what hacking is from a legal perspective. They were introduced to the main offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and had a chance to think like ‘the Jury’ and deliver guilty/not guilty verdicts. They then debated how good the law on hacking currently is and whether it adequately distinguishes between ethical and unethical behaviour.