Dear Readers,
Key aspects of this Jusletter IT are questions of cloud computing, copyright law, liability of providers, as well as legal logic, formalization of law and legal linguistics. The catchword of «digital fundamental rights» is more and more heard; we provide a solid introduction with an analysis of relevant case law of the ECtHR and the ECJ. In the now increasingly more important technical issues are significant on the one hand practical aspects – representation of legal knowledge or advanced law office software – but on the other hand also theoretical approaches, such as the predictability of legal decisions. As new innovative research topics are presented: an IT-law concept of dominance of dominant companies and a concept of risk for automated decisions.
Two contributions deepen the already published analyzes of cloud computing. Carmen De la Cruz – Cloud Computing. Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen? (Cloud Computing. Old wine in new skins?) – deals comprehensively with the challenges of this form of outsourcing. In addition to the questions in the infrastructure sector additional requirements are needed for the safety, the management tasks of the cloud provider and compliance issues. Rolf H. Weber and Dominic N. Staiger – Legal Challenges of Trans-border Data Flow in the Cloud – analyse the issues of cross-border cloud computing, especially on data protection.
Two articles deal with the important Tribune de Genève judgment, Swiss Federal Court 5A_792/2011. Alexander Kernen – Volle Verantwortlichkeit des Host Providers für persönlichkeitsverletzende Handlungen seines Kunden (Full responsibility of the host provider for personality infringing actions of his customers) – and Nik Schoch and Michael Schüepp – Provider-Haftung «de près ou de loin»? Abwehransprüche gegen Internet-Service-Provider im Immaterialgüter- und Wettbewerbsrecht im Lichte des Urteils des Bundesgerichts 5A_792/2011 vom 14. Januar 2013 (Provider Liability «de près ou de loin»? Defensive claims against Internet service providers in intellectual property and competition law in the light of the judgement of the Federal Court 5A_792/2011 from 14th January 2013). Under Swiss law, there is no privilege of liability for Internet service providers, resulting in a need for action of the law-maker.
Maria Grazia Rizzi and Georg Jakob – Von den Ursprüngen zur Gegenwart des Urheberrechts: Malerei (From the origins to the present copyright: Painting) – outline the histroy of copyright on the example of painting.
Rolf H. Weber and Ulrike I. Heinich – Zur Grundrechtsgüterabwägung bei der Durchsetzung von Urheberrechtsansprüchen im Internetkontext anhand der europäischen Rechtsprechung (The basic rights considerations in the enforcement of copyright claims in the Internet context by menas of European case law) address digital fundamental rights and deal in detail with the case law of the ECtHR and the ECJ on data protection, copyright and the duties of Internet service providers.
Aleksander Wiatrowski wants to develop in his thesis project «Abuses of Dominant Companies in the Area of Data Protection and Data Security» a new concept of «dominance by dominant companies» and describes in a short article the project: The «Dominance» in Abuses of Dominant Companies.
The legal logic as well as the application of mathematical methods in the law remain an important research topic. Rainhard Z. Bengez is working on a concept of predictability of legal decisions in the context of legal theory and legal informatics. He will introduce this concept in a series of articles, starting with an introduction in this Jusletter IT: Gedanken zu einer Erweiterung der Logischen Rechtslehre zu einer Computable Legal Justification Theory (Thoughts on a logical extension of the theory of law to a Computable Legal Justification Theory). Thomas Preiß – Die Entwicklung eines Risikobegriffs zur Anwendung auf den Einsatz automatisierter Systeme im Sinne des § 49a VStG (The development of a concept of risk for application concerning the use of automated systems within the meaning of § 49a VStG) – developes a method to measure the risk of automated administrative procedures. Of course, it requires a lot more effort to ensure that these methods are suitable for practical use.
Fritjof Haft – IT-Unterstützung in kontradiktorischen Gerichtsverfahren – das Projekt «Gaius» (IT support in contradictory court proceedings – the project «Gaius») – points to the innovative possibilities of legal informatics to efficiently shape contradictory proceedings (in particular civil litigation and administrative proceedings).
The increasing importance of legal linguistics shows the contribution of Günther Schefbeck, Tanja Wissik, Elena Chiocchetti and Michael Wetzel: Europäische Rechtssprache(n) und Pflege von mehrsprachigen terminologischen Ressourcen (European legal language(s) and maintenance of multilingual terminological resources).
Simon Schlauri – Die Notifizierbarkeit der SuisseID gemäss dem EU-Verordnungsvorschlag über elektronische Vertrauensdienste (The option of notification of SuisseID according to the EU Regulation on electronic trust services) – analyzes the options to include the SuisseID in the proposed EU system of electronic identification.
Dino Girardi and Monica Palmirani – Legal Issues and Economic Exploitation of Open Government Data – provide an overview of the state of Open Data discussion in the EU in the light of the modification of the PSI Directive.
Lastly Armin Horn brings a review of the commentary by Bauer / Heckmann / Ruge / Schallbruch (ed.), Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz, Kommentar (Administrative Procedure Act, Commentary) hardback, 1st edition 2012. Its value lies in the comprehensive commentary on the legal provisions on E-Government in Germany.
Having said this, we hope you enjoy reading this issue!
Wien/Bern, in May 2013
