The law seminar
for students of the Universities of Hamburg and Frankfurt in the winter semester 2020/21 attempts to identify difficult but central questions of the application of law in digital communication spaces from the perspective of constitutional law, European law and international law in a legal-ontological way, to summarise them in a legal-dogmatic way and to reflect on them in legal theory. The seminar led by
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz and
PD Dr. Matthias Kettemann will take place as a hybrid on-site / virtual event and will begin on
26 October 2020 with a compulsory course.
A special focus will be on the role of regulation in the multi-level system of affordances and code-based nudging, technical standard setting, private rule-making, state regulation, European law framework legislation and international law framing.
Attention is also paid to the normative interaction of humans and machines and the questions that arise for the law in this context. These are discussed on the basis of current cases and case groups. Among them: How can digitally mediated innovations be captured by law? What is the role of states (and companies) in times of diffusing contexts of responsibility and the privatisation of communication spaces? How can algorithms and self-learning automated decision-making systems be legally defined? What role do social norms and technical standards have for the regulation of digitalised sustainable societies? And finally: How can not only individual freedom of movement but also the prerequisites of social cohesion be secured in a way that enables action?
Topics
Principles and Actors
- Legal framing of digital sovereignty of states and individuals
- Internet Governance as a task of the community of states
- States in Internet Law: Diffusion of Responsibility and Reterritorialization
- Companies in Internet law: intermediaries, social responsibility and liability privileges
- Individuals on the Internet: Legal subjectivity and powerlessness?
- Courts: Conflicts of jurisdiction in Internet law
The Interaction of Regulatory Orders
- The "International Law of the Internet"
- The EU as a player in Internet law
- The Basic Law in Digitality
- Government regulatory approaches to the Internet
- Social norms, technical standards and trans-national regulatory arrangements
- Private normative frameworks as a regulatory approach in digitisation
- Law-code interaction in rule-making and enforcement on platforms
Selected Concepts and Cases
- Internet access as a human right
- Cybersecurity in a multi-level system
- Cyberwar, hackbacks and international humanitarian law in cyberspace Information operations and ban on intervention
- Data protection, Big Data, Internet surveillance
- Freedom of expression and hate speech
- "Legalisation" of algorithms: selected areas of tension
- Discrimination through automated decision-making systems: individual and societal risk potentials and legal solutions
Obligatory preliminary discussion on Monday, 26 October 2020, 3.30 p.m. - 4.30 pm sharp in the seminar room (3rd floor) of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI), Rothenbaumchaussee 36, 20148 Hamburg.
Online participation is possible for students of the University of Frankfurt. The topics will be assigned after the preliminary discussion.
The seminar will take place in blocks near Hamburg. In general, travel costs have to be paid by the participants themselves, but the organisers will try to get funding. If you are interested, we will contact other seminar participants to arrange private accommodation.
Information for Students of Universität Hamburg
If you would like to participate in this seminar, please send a binding registration by e-mail to
Matthias K. Klatt. The seminar will take place as a
block event at the Hans- Bredow Institute. You can obtain a
seminar certificate at the seminar. This requires that you give an oral presentation of your topic and discuss it with the other seminar participants before completing your written work. Subsequently, the knowledge gained will be incorporated into the thematic work.
A seminar certificate is a prerequisite for a subsequent doctorate. The seminar paper also offers advanced students the opportunity to practise writing a topic paper. If you would like
to write an SPB term paper, please contact Mr. Klatt directly; the capacities for this are limited and are already almost exhausted.
Information for Students of the Goethe University
The block seminar belongs to SPB 1 Internationalisation and Europeanisation of Law. The seminar requirements consist of a written seminar paper (submitted by tbd; 30-45,000 characters, incl. FN) and its oral presentation (15-20 minutes; during the block seminar). The number of participants is limited to 15. The deadline for registration of the paper at the FB1 examination office is 14 days after the topic assignment.
