The Specialist Course on the EU Digital Services Act is an executive education course designed by Dr Husovec. It combines 16 hours of live Zoom seminars with additional pre-recorded lectures from Dr. Husovec's online course, the DSA Specialist Masterclass, to which the participants are granted access for two months. The participants are usually professionals from national regulators, technology companies, law firms, funding agencies, and civil society organisations. The participants can decide to take an online exam at the end of the course to earn ‘the DSA Specialist Certificate’ from LSE. The course and the certificate aim to increase the career prospects of participants. The test takes the form of a multiple-choice exam asking theoretical and practical questions of law, covering all the areas of the EU Digital Services Act.
Course organiser: Dr Martin Husovec, LSE Law School, Email: M.Husovec@lse.ac.uk.
Course manager: Amanda Tinnams, LSE Law School, Email: A.Tinnams@lse.ac.uk.
Aims
- Participants learn how to apply and critically assess the EU Digital Services Act as the leading trust and safety regulation for digital services.
- Participants acquire an understanding of the main provisions of the EU Digital Services Act through a set of hypotheticals from daily practice.
- Participants will discuss practical strategies for compliance with DSA’s content moderation rules and other due diligence obligations.
Target audience
- Practitioners, in-house lawyers, and civil servants across the world who work on the trust and safety regulation of digital services, including content moderation, and want to prepare for the DSA compliance work.
- Professionals and students across the world who wish to gain in-depth knowledge of the key DSA concepts to boost their career prospects.
Structure and delivery
- Four 4-hour sessions in November-December 2024 (14 November, 21 November, 28 November, 5 December), all 1.30pm-5.30pm UK time
- Capacity: the short course will be capped at 30 students to maximise interaction.
- Location: the course will be delivered on Zoom.
- Format: lectures with in-class discussions and case studies
Topics
- The DSA’s scope, components, and broader regulatory context
- The DSA’s liability chapter (liability exemptions, orders and injunctions)
- The DSA’s due diligence obligations chapter (content moderation, fair design practices, transparency rules, and risk management obligations)
- The DSA’s enforcement chapter (competences, public enforcement, private enforcement)
Dr Martin Husovec is an Associate Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is a year-long expert on platform regulation. Since the adoption of the Digital Services Act, Martin has been training professionals and civil servants from all the regulators around Europe. His book, The Principles of Digital Services Act (Oxford University Press, August 2024) is among the leading publications on the DSA. Martin is further the author of the book, Injunctions Against Intermediaries in the European Union (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and many articles on the regulation of intermediaries, intellectual property enforcement, and digital freedom of expression.
Martin is a member of the European Copyright Society (ECS), a group of prominent European copyright scholars. He is also a co-founder of a think-tank, the European Information Society Institute, which acts as amicus curia before the European Court of Human Rights and operates a domain name dispute resolution system for skTLD. He was an advisor to the President of the Slovak Constitutional Court, national ministries across Europe and Asia, and various EU institutions in the areas of intellectual property, freedom of expression and privacy. His work was repeatedly cited by Advocate Generals at the Court of Justice of the European Union.
“An excellent course with very rich content and extensive resources, well structured, delivered with clarity exceeding my expectations in every aspect and keeping me engaged throughout. The instructor’s expertise and genuine passion for the subject made the learning experience both informative and enjoyable. I feel privileged to have attended this excellent course and will wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject” Ioulia G., lawyer
The participants will be given a PDF handbook, along with a mix of articles, book excerpts, practice questions, case summaries, and other legal documents. The participants are also encouraged to obtain access to Dr Husovec’s latest book, The Principles of the Digital Services Act, for further comprehensive reading, or use his online archive of videos.
Day 1 | 14 November 2024 | 1:30pm-5:30pm GMT
Scope and Context
- The DSA’s basic goals and basic outline
- Scope of digital services covered by the DSA
- DSA’s main components: liability chapter, due diligence obligations, and enforcement
- Regulatory context: DSA vs EU law (e.g., AVMSD); DSA vs national law
Day 2 | 21 November 2024 | 1:30pm-5:30pm GMT
Liability
- Liability exemptions: hosting, mere conduit, caching and search engines
- The neutrality and knowledge requirements
- Prohibition of general monitoring obligations
- Injunctions and orders of authorities: filtering and other preventive obligations.
- DSA’s enforcement of liability vs accountability obligations
Day 3 | 28 November 2024 | 1:30pm-5:30pm GMT
Accountability
- Overview of accountability rules under DSA’s due diligence obligations
- Content moderation process: from notification to statements of reasons, internal appeals, and external out-of-court dispute resolution
- Role of trusted flaggers, consumer organisations, and other NGOs
- Content moderation case studies
- Fair design practices and risk management obligations
- Protection of minors and consumers
- Transparency reporting and obligations
Day 4 | 5 December 2024 | 1:30pm-5:30pm GMT
Compliance, VLOPs and Enforcement
- Designation process
- Special rules for VLOPs/VLOSEs
- General risk management system: from self-assessment to supervision
- Competence of national DSCs and the European Commission
- Enforcement powers
- Standardisation and Codes of Conduct
- Private enforcement of the DSA obligations
- Fees: £2,500 for companies, and £2,000 for civil society and public authorities. An early booking discount of 15% will be available for those who register and pay until 31 August 2024. The participants obtain one free option to take ‘The DSA Specialist Certificate’ (worth £750) at the end of the course.
- For further questions, including concerning registration and fees, please contact Amanda Tinnams, Course Manager. Email: A.Tinnams@lse.ac.uk.
- The registration form is available here.
- On completion of registration and transfer of payment, you will immediately receive a link to resources.
- The places are allocated on a first come first served basis. If the registration is full, you can ask to be put on the waiting list.
- Course participants who opt to take an online exam at the end of the course will be able to obtain ‘The DSA Specialist Certificate’ upon successful completion. The Certificate is worth £750 and is offered to course participants for free.
- The DSA Specialist Certificate aims at professionals, including lawyers and nonlawyers, who want to stand out on the job market by credibly showing their deep understanding of the DSA and its compliance questions.
- Each course participant who actively participates in the course will also be issued a separate course certificate as proof of participation. CPD points can also be applied.
Cancellations requested after the participant receives the reading materials are subject to a 10% cancellation fee. Cancellations requested less than four weeks before the commencement of the course incur the following penalties: two to four weeks 50% of the course fee, less than two weeks 100% of the course fee. If written notification is not received and you do not attend, the full course fee will be retained as a cancellation charge.