Das Recht der globalen Digitalität – The Law of Global Digitality

Conference

Project manager: Prof. Dr. Alexander Peukert

Project description

The conference will discuss the question of how different areas of law (in particular private commercial and media law, criminal law, data protection law and financial market law) deal with the tension between global digital communication and local legal systems and whether general trends can be identified in this respect since the turn of the millennium.

The fact that there is a profound tension between the mediality of global computer networks and local law has long been known and frequently problematized. However, the responses of different areas of law to this challenge are rarely analyzed in the necessary level of detail. The same questions arise in all areas of law affected by digitalization: What claim to validity do local legal regimes make with regard to global digital issues (jurisdiction of the courts/authorities, applicable law, scope of application of the substantive statute)? In this respect, is there a discernible tendency for local laws to be triggered more easily and, conversely, to be applied with an extraterritorial claim (cf. EU data protection)? Are the legal requirements for cross-border digital behavior becoming stricter (liability levels, regulatory density)? How relevant are technical standards (“Code is Law”) and hybrid private-public governance structures (e.g. Memoranda of Understanding, Network Enforcement Act)?
By addressing these cross-cutting issues for six areas of private and public antitrust law, it may be possible to identify general patterns of legal reaction to global digitality. To enrich the empirical material, each area of law will be discussed from the perspective of German/EU law and a non-EU law. The comparison between areas of law will thus be complemented by the classic legal comparison, which means that the conference will be held in English. On the basis of this rich material, a theory of the law of global digitality can possibly be developed.

International conference
The Law of Global Digitality
December 2 and 3, 2019, Frankfurt am Main