Dear readers
On 25 May 2018, the time has come – the Directive (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) comes into force. Within the last months and years there have been many speculations regarding what the inception of the GDPR will mean for the EU member states and for Switzerland. In today’s issue, four articles deal with the topic of data protection.
Yaniv Benhamou and Emilie Jacot-Guillarmod examine the extraterritorial impact of the GDPR and notice that there are some uncertainties regarding the future interaction between Swiss and EU authorities. To some extent, there are even double regulations when considering the Data Protection Act.
Are information security and data protection compatible in any way when modern security measures disagree with the idea of data protection in such a fundamental way? Wolfgang Schnabl demonstrates how an information security management system enables a joint consideration.
Galileo Fasching scrutinizes the right to access governed under the Austrian Data Protection Act 2000, the Directive 95/49/EG (DPR) as well as under the new GDPR. He shows up the changes that will arise from 25 May 2018 on.
Due to the attorney-client privilege, lawyers can not let their assistants deal with their data processing. In Germany, the according provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code, the Criminal Code and the Federal Lawyer’s Act will be adapted with regard to the digitization. Thomas Hoeren copes with these new provisions and comments their applicability in the digital age.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is associated with the GDPR, too. Can the requirements requested in the GDPR even be fulfilled in future? In what way do the legal provisions to develop to be able to keep up with the progress in AI?
Robert van den Hoven van Genderen deals with the legal differentiation of the Homo Sapiens and the Robo Sapiens as well as with the adherence of fundamental (data protection) rights. He both introduces the idea of separate regulations and the establishment of uniform non-discriminating provisions.
The connection between AI and liability law is presented by Nicolai Bleskie. He analyzes the potential of the current legal structure and proposes forward-looking approaches.
Not only are the data protection related circumstances changing with the digitization. The finance sector too undergoes a major reform – this includes, amongst others, Blockchain, FinTech and Tokens.
Rolf H. Weber and Salvatore Iacangelo dispute the legal questions regarding the transfer of tokens and therefor distinguish between the classification of tokens as securities and as uncertificated securities.
systems of Great Britain, Australia and Switzerland and, by means of the gathered information, forecasts the legal developments.
Which impact does FinTech have on the general banking law? Lucas Ribisel compares the legal systems of Great Britain, Australia and Switzerland and, by means of the gathered information, forecasts the legal developments.
When a company that stored Bitcoins for its clients files for bankruptcy, are those Bitcoins concluded in the bankruptcy assets? Christian Meisser, Luzius Meisser and Ronald Kogens examine the handling of crypto currencies under insolvency law.
In 2015, the EU Commission decided to align the EU copyright law to the digital age. In the course of the reform, the Copyright Directive 2001/29/EG shall be implemented, i.e., the EU copyright shall be further standardized and be applicable in every member state.
Jens-L. Gaster contemplates the project of a unitary copyright law for the whole of Europe and, amongst others, deals with thie digital agenda of the EU, the Marrakesh Treaty and the patent law reform. He summarizes that the EU Commossion’s endeavour is indeed bold, but unavoidable nonetheless.
There are still differences in copyright law, as Pirmin Schenk highlights. In his article, he presents the German provisions regarding provider liability and derives solution approaches for possible legal regulations in Switzerland.
In the database «Google Book Search», millions of books are digitally available in extracts – in what sense does this concern the author’s copyrights? Galileo Fasching evaluates the case Author’s Gild, Inc. versus Google, Inc. and concludes that Google, Inc. acts in a legal twilight-zone.
Some other articles of today’s issue deal with legal information and legal theory.
When a law is changed in Austria, an amendment is being published. The merging of the law’s original version and the amendment is called consolidation. Beate Glück describes why the interpretative framework of a consolidated text can not only be expanded with the creation of a reading text, but also
through the delivery of additional information.
Vytautas Čyras and Friedrich Lachmayer deal with the «meaning of the meaning»; the authors hereby differentiate between institutional and content meaning. By means of various visualizations, they point out why many different presentations of a single legal act are appropriate.
Reading a contract can be challenging; those documents are made almost incomprehensible by so-called «legalising». Milva Finnegan presents the concept of a controlled contract language that has been derived from the aerospace industry.
What is behind a name? Gerhard Donhauser introduces the meanings of names, pseudonyms and anonymity using the example of the renowned author Joanne K. Rowling.
Felix Gantner carefully examines legal facts, legal situations, and legal consequences. In this context, he presents the frame semantic and explains how the model of the application of law changes due to the consideration of frames.
We wish you a fascinating reading and are looking forward to greet you again on 21 September 2018 for the next issue of Jusletter IT!
