Financial Cryptography

Digital Evidence -- 26-27 June, London

Cryptographers, software and hardware architects and others in the tech world have developed a strong belief that everything can be solved with more bits and bites. Often to our benefit, but sometimes to our cost. Just so with matters of law and disputes, where inventions like digital signatures have laid a trail of havoc and confusion through security practices and tools. As we know in financial cryptography, public-key reverse encryptions -- confusingly labelled as digital signatures -- are more usefully examined within the context of the law of evidence than within that of signatures.

Now here cometh those who have to take these legal theories from the back of the technologists' napkins and make them really work: the lawyers. Stephen Mason leads an impressive line-up from many countries in a conference on Digital Evidence:

Digital evidence is ubiquitous, and to such an extent, that it is used in courts every day in criminal, family, maritime, banking, contract, planning and a range of other legal matters. It will not be long before the only evidence before most courts across the globe will all be in the form of digital evidence: photographs taken from mobile telephones, e-mails from Blackberries and laptops, and videos showing criminal behaviour on You Tube are just some of the examples. Now is the time for judges, lawyers and in-house counsel to understand (i) that they need to know some of the issues and (ii) they cannot ignore digital evidence, because the courts deal with it every day, and the amount will increase as time goes by. The aim of the conference will be to alert judges, lawyers (in-house lawyers as well as lawyers in practice), digital forensic specialists, police officers and IT directors responsible for conducting investigations to the issues that surround digital evidence.

Not digital signatures, but evidence! This is a genuinely welcome development, and well worth the visit. Here's more of the blurb:

Conference Programme International Conference on Digital Evidence

26th- 27th June 2008, The Vintner's Hall, London – UNITED KINGDOM
Conference: 26th & 27th June 2008, Vintners' Hall, London
Cocktail & Dinner: 26th June 2008, The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn

THE FIRST CONFERENCE TO TREAT DIGITAL EVIDENCE FULLY ON AN INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM...

12 CPD HOURS - ACCREDITED BY THE LAW SOCIETY & THE BAR STANDARDS BOARD
This event has also been accredited on an ad hoc basis under the Faculty's CPD Scheme and will qualify for 12 hours

Understanding the Technology: Best Practice & Principles for Judges, Lawyers, Litigants, the Accused & Information Security & Digital Evidence Specialists

MIS is hosting & developing this event in partnership with & under the guidance of Stephen Mason, Barrister & Visiting Research Fellow, Digital Evidence Research, British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
Mr. Mason is in charge of the programme's content and is the author of Electronic Signatures in Law (Tottel, 2nd edn, 2007) [This text covers 98 jurisdictions including case law from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, England & Wales, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the United States of America]. He is also an author and general editor of Electronic Evidence: Disclosure, Discovery & Admissibility (LexisNexis Butterworths, 2007) [This text covers the following jurisdictions: Australia, Canada, England & Wales, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa and the United States of America]. Register Now!

Stephen is also International Electronic Evidence, general editor, (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 2008), ISBN 978-1-905221-29-5, covering the following jurisdictions: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and Turkey.