ICIL History

ICIL first took place in 2008, in Corfu, Greece, funded by the European Community, an event by the Ionian University, Department of Archives, Library Science and Museum Studies. ICIL was created to the benefit of the graduate course “Information law and ethics”, taught at the Ionian University, in Corfu and Athens, Greece since 2005. From a conference with twenty international speakers in 2008, ICIL is currently addressing large numbers of international speakers and participants and hosts many parallel and special sessions, simultaneously hosting other major events such as Philoweb 2014.

Since 2008, ICIL has become a major international conference dealing exclusively with the legal and ethical aspects of information, co-organized by the Ionian University (School of Information Science) and the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT) and morally supported by the International Center for Information Ethics, the NEXA Center for Internet and Society and the Institute for Legal Informatics (IRI).

ICIL 2016 took place at Pretoria, South Africa, in collaboration with the University of Pretoria, African Center of Excellence and Information Ethics, he Capurro-Fiek Foundation , the NEXA Center for Internet and Society , the Journal of Intellectual Property Forum (IPSANZ), the Seattle Journal for Social Justice  and the International Center for Information Ethics .

ICIL 2018 took place in Antwerp, Belgium, in collaboration with the Universities of Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven. ICIL 2018 was centered around modern intellectual property law.

ICIL focuses on the concept of information from a multidisciplinary point of view. Information law and ethics cover the concept of information as such and therefore, irrespective of the medium via this information is being transferred. ICIL has been interested in papers on intellectual property, data protection, freedom of information, individual rights and information, privacy, cyberlaw and cyberethics, media law and ethics, digital divide and information technology, e-government, surveillance, intellectual freedom, open access, digital divide and other. ICIL has also been particularly interested in papers on the historical development of information laws and ethical theory and we would also consider papers dealing with the social, political or psychological aspects of information.

ICIL has instituted a Young Scholars Forum, aiming at helping young researchers presenting their work in an international conference. Also, it has hosted a series of Special Sessions, for example on Museum Ethics, Arts and Ethics, Libraries and Intellectual Capital, Bibliometrics, Law and Cryptography and others.

ICIL has steadily published proceedings as printed volumes, distributed to all ICIL speakers and INSEIT members every year since 2009.

Detailed information on the eight earlier ICILs can be accessed here: