The project investigates various fields of law in the area of conflict between global digital communication and local legal systems.
The project "Law of Digitality" dealt with the question of how different fields of law (in particular private commercial and media law, criminal law, data protection and financial market law) cope 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 aim of the project is to develop the basis for the formulation of a theory of the right to global digitality.
The fact that there is a profound tension between the mediality of global computer networks and local law has long been known and often problematised. However, the answers of different fields of law to this challenge are hardly ever analysed in a comparative manner with the required level of detail. The same questions arise in all areas of law affected by digitisation. What claim do local legal regimes make with regard to global digital issues (jurisdiction of the courts/authorities, applicable law, scope of application of lex rei sitae)? Can a tendency be discerned in the respect according to which local laws are more easily triggered and vice versa applied with extraterritorial claims (cf. EU data protection)? Will the legal requirements for cross-border digital conduct become stricter (liability levels, regulatory density)? What is the relevance of technical standards ("Code is Law") and hybrid private-public governance structures (e.g. Memoranda of Understanding, Network Enforcement Act)?
Project Information
Overview
Duration: 2019-2020
Research programme: RP2 - Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Digital Communication
