Posted on Categories artificial intelligence

Legal personality and artificial intelligence

In October 2017 the humanoid robot known as Sophia, gifted with artificial intelligence, obtained Saudi Arabian citizenship. In May 2018 Google showcased the capabilities of its product Google Duplex, whose AI system can arrange an appointment at the hairdresser’s or reserve a table at a restaurant, while avoiding misunderstandings on the phone and imitating the gap-filling hems and haws of human conversation. Observing the capabilities of these robots, a lawyer’s mind naturally turns to the issue of the potential legal personality of AI.

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Posted on Categories other

The tech revolution: A threat to the core values of civil society and the legal profession?

Over the past 20 years we have experienced technological developments dramatically changing our way of life. These developments, like all technological developments in general, help us perform various tasks more precisely, more efficiently, and faster. In general, they enable us to gain time.

However, when an invention solves one problem, it is quickly used for other purposes. It becomes applicable in completely different areas and leads to results not predicted and often not at all favoured by the inventor.

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Posted on Categories litigation, privacy/personal data protection

Private enforcement under the GDPR

While the new data protection regulation provides for severe administrative penalties for failure to comply, it is well known that whether a penalty is effective is determined not by its severity but by its inevitability. Even though the personal data protection authority has been given broad powers, it does not have adequate means of exercising them. A solution could be a private enforcement mechanism within the regulation, whereby any person whose data has been breached can independently seek a judicial remedy.

Private enforcement is being used more and more as an addition to the public law mechanism for the enforcement of regulatory provisions. This solution has been introduced recently in compensatory liability cases for breach of competition law. A solution of this kind is also possible under the GDPR.

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Posted on Categories anti-money laundering, fintech

Terminating bank accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges: Why we should all be concerned

This will not be another article about cryptocurrencies. Instead, I want to focus on a dangerous precedent we may have overlooked in the broader debate over cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency exchanges and other enterprises operating on the cryptocurrency market have been targeted by the highly controversial practice of banks shutting down their accounts. This practice displays the universal threats arising along with the increasing digitalisation of commerce.

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Posted on Categories changes in law, crowdfunding

Amendment to the Public Offering Act: Removal of prospectus requirement an opportunity for crowdfunding

The high costs of preparing a prospectus and the required intermediation of an investment firm have discouraged many companies from raising financing through a public offering. Given the low threshold (EUR 100,000) for the value of a public offering requiring publication of a prospectus, the obligations connected with public offerings have also had a negative impact on other methods of financing such as crowdfunding. The new regulations are aimed at relaxing the national requirements by raising the threshold to EUR 1 million and adjusting other regulations to this change.

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