The Chair of Law and AI at the University of Tübingen is hosting an International PhD Summer School in Artificial Intelligence and EU Law from 13 - 17 May 2024.

On October 20, 2023, a panel discussion on the topic "Who Controls Artificial Intelligence?" took place at the Uhlandsaal of the Museumsgesellschaft in Tübingen. The panel featured Professor Dr. Moritz Hardt, the Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Ulrike von Luxburg, a Professor of Computer Science specializing in the theory of machine learning, Professor Dr. Michèle Finck LL.M., Chairholder of the Chair in Law and Artificial Intelligence, and Carsten Eickhoff, Professor of E-Health and Medical Data. The audience was invited to ask questions during the discussion.

Saba is currently a visiting scholar at Tubingen University's AI chair, where she has the privilege of delving into the realm of artificial intelligence and its intersection with legal challenges. This unique environment has provided her with valuable insights and interactions that she believes will greatly enhance her research. Her primary objective during her stay in Tübingen is to advance the understanding of how AI impacts the regulation of autonomous weapons systems, with a special emphasis on improving peace and safeguarding civilian lives. Saba is honored to be part of a chair dedicated to AI, and she looks forward to engaging with the AI community at Tubingen University during her stay. It is for her a unique opportunity to collaborate, learn, and contribute to the evolving landscape of AI research.

In Sabas broader research, which she has been pursuing as a Ph.D. candidate and FCT research fellow at the University of Nova de Lisboa, she focuses on the critical task of bridging the gap between AI and the legal challenges it presents. Specifically, her research revolves around the ethical and legal aspects of regulating autonomous weapons systems in the context of the Artificial Intelligence Age. She believes that the responsible use of AI in the field of defense is paramount to ensure the safety and protection of civilians during times of conflict.

We congratulate our postdoctoral researcher Gabriele Carovano for his position in the digitalisation unit of the Italian Competition Authority.

The Data Governance Act (“DGA”) introduces a new regulatory regime for data intermediaries, which, inter alia, pursues the objective of increasing the competitiveness of the European data economy by bolstering trust in data-sharing mechanisms. Against this backdrop, the paper introduces data intermediaries and critically examines the DGA’s related legal regime by testing its underlying assumptions and highlighting its intrinsic weaknesses and limitations as part of the broader EU data law puzzle. As a result, the paper brings to the fore certain contradictions between DGA’s means and ends and uncovers inconsistencies and loopholes between the DGA, the GDPR, the draft Data Act, and the Digital Markets Act. Overall, while the DGA’s underlying efforts are laudable, its precise postulations may hinder the achievement of its underlying objectives due to two main factors. First its own internal limitations and incoherences, and, second, uncertainties and tensions resulting from its interplay with the broader EU data law framework.

In the strategy papers accompanying its six policy priorities, the European Commission emphasizes the role of digitalisation in environmental sustainability on multiple occasions. Thereby, data - itself and as a basis for digital developments - is of considerable ecological relevance: it allows predictions about environmental phenomena and thus serves as a basis for political decisions, can optimize the implementation of public tasks such as road traffic management, and enables innovations in the ecological interest, e.g. in agriculture. Therefore, environmental concerns should not be neglected when addressing the issue of access and use rights of (non-)personal data, as currently considered by the EU legislator. The article aims to provide an overview of the different types of environmentally relevant data and the existing data law instruments in this regard, while highlighting the limits that exist under current law for accessing and using data for environmental purposes. It then goes on to explore and evaluate in detail the environmental potential of the data sharing mechanisms envisaged in the draft Data Act and the Data Governance Act as the latest legislative components of the European data strategy.

Yuliya was on a research stay funded by the Cluster of Excellence – Machine Learning for Science at the European University Institute (EUI) from mid-January until the beginning of April 2023. During her stay at the EUI Yuliya attended multiple lectures and followed the class ‘Writing your academic article: from draft to submission in eight weeks’ taught by Nicola Hargreaves, Laurie Anderson. During this class she considerably reworked her paper on ‘Data Governance Act: on international transfers of non-personal data and GDPR mimesis’.

She also presented her paper at the EUI Law of Information Society Working Group in Florence (March 2023). This paper was accepted by the European Data Protection Law Review 2023/1 and will be published in the coming weeks.

During her research stay Yuliya discussed research methods in EU law and considerably benefitted from the exchange with other researchers. She also presented her research on EU restrictive measures.

In September 2022 Yuliya Miadzvetskaya was warmly welcomed by the Hague Program on International Cybersecurity as a visiting research fellow. The program picked her interest a few years ago prior to the start of her PhD. During her research stay she enjoyed the possibility to interact with a number of stellar cybersecurity experts whose work she has been following in the past years.

During the Fall Semester 2022 Dr. Carovano had the privilege of being hosted by Luiss Guido Carli University for a visiting research period. This opportunity allowed Dr. Carovano to delve deeper into its research on European data law, artificial intelligence law, digital competition, and their intersections. Furthermore, the visit proved to be a valuable experience as Dr. Carovano was able to interact with a diverse group of highly esteemed academics. These interactions were conducive to the exchange of views and experiences, and have laid the foundation for potential future collaborations.

Article on Verfassungsblog: The dramatic events taking place in Ukraine and growing security threats to the EU itself led to a mini-revolution in the EU sanctions policy. Now the EU sanctions toolbox includes some novel measures, such as broadcast bans, which were previously under the discretion of national authorities. The EU also resorts to broad economic measures that are anything but targeted. Furthermore, the Union tightens its policy on sanctions circumvention. The above-mentioned changes put the EU in a double dilemma with respect to Belarus. First, it needs to decouple Belarusians from their authorities to preserve the human dimension of EU-Belarus relations. Second, it has to differentiate Belarus from Russia. While the rationale for increasing the alignment of sanctions against Belarus and Russia is understandable, one must admit that Belarus is not Russia. To ensure this, the EU needs a more calibrated, strategic and a country-specific approach with respect to Belarus.

Artikel bei Länder-Analysen: In Brüssel werden neue Sanktionen gegen Minsk und Moskau diskutiert. Die neuen restriktiven Maßnahmen gegen Minsk sollen nicht nur eine Antwort auf die Aufstellung eines gemeinsamen Truppenverbandes von Belarus und Russland darstellen, sondern auch verhindern, dass Russland die Sanktionen mit Hilfe von Belarus umgeht. Allerdings birgt die zunehmende Harmonisierung der EU-Sanktionen gegen Belarus und Russland das Risiko, dass Belarus nicht als ein eigenständiges Thema der EU-Politik behandelt wird, sondern als integraler Bestandteil der EU-Agenda zu Russland. Um dies zu vermeiden, muss die EU in Bezug auf Belarus einen präziseren, strategischen und länderspezifischen Ansatz verfolgen.

Prior to the start of her fellowship in the Hague, Yuliya Miadzvetskaya published an article on EU Cyber Diplomacy Toolbox, an innovative instrument of the EU cybersecurity policy. In her article she analyzes the legal tools the European Union has in dealing with cyberattacks. The growing ambition of the EU as a global cyber actor called for a less inward-looking approach towards cyber-incidents and for a more outward-looking EU. Practically this translates in a shift from the conventional defence of networks and resilience-building paradigm to the EU that promotes and enforces norms of responsible State behaviour across its borders.

Prof. Finck has published an op-ed together with Melanie Fink in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, in which the Court embraces the same argument on the limitations for public authorities to use AI that both authors advanced in their recently co-authored article.

Prof Finck publishes a new article on the explainability of artificial intelligence together with other AI researchers from the University‘s cluster of excellence.

Prof. Finck was recently invited to speak about the regulation of artificial intelligence in the common podcast of the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Data Protection Board.

The Stuttgarter Zeitung has published a profile of Prof. Finck, which portrays her career and plans for her unique chair at the University.

From 30 May to 1 June 2022 the first colloquium on blockchain technology and its legal implications took place at the University of Tübingen. It was organised by Prof. Dr Michèle Finck and co-taught by Silke Noa Elrifai, General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer at Gnosis, and Dr Oliver Beige, an innovation economist. The colloquium brought together doctoral researchers and master students from the Universities of Tübingen and Tel Aviv. Participants discussed the legal and economic challenges surrounding the rise of the crypto-driven decentralised economy in an interactive format, based on extensive readings on the topic prior to the event.

On the first day, we discussed some of the key legal challenges related to public and permissionless blockchains such as the interplay between public and private regulation; decentralised governance models; clashes between national legal orders and international legal systems and the related systemic risks and enforcement drawbacks. On the second day, participants initially conducted a comparative analysis of the European and Israeli regulatory approaches to disruptive technologies and assessed the advantages and disadvantages as well as the economic and political rationales behind the different solutions. The colloquium then took a deep dive into the topic of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (‘DAOs’) as Silke Noa Elrifai led a discussion concerning their legal definition; the legal difference between wrapped and unwrapped DAOs; options to equip DAOs with legal personality; possible categorizations of DAOs as well as proxy voting and governance mechanisms.

The third day concluded with a discussion centred on the economic aspects of blockchains that was led by Dr Oliver Beige. Participants tried to model an adoption curve of past and future blockchain evolution by using Oliver Williamson’s Box to guide the discussion around the advantages and disadvantages of blockchain-based business models. Elements discussed included the question of the key factors to consider when deciding whether using a blockchain is a good business idea; which industries and applications are suitable for migration on-chain (or not) and the different roles that conventional firms could play in a decentralised economy. The discussion concluded with a case study of a Tübingen-based start-up using blockchain to tackle the environmental impact of globalised supply chains.

The article highlights the present-day practices of digital technology and the benefits it brings to society, such as greater diversity of voices and access to information, as well as its negative consequences, such as the exploitation of society by malicious actors, political micro-targeting campaigns and the mass dissemination of disinformation. The article argues that new legislation is needed to guide digital technology within the framework of international human rights. It analyses existing approaches to deal with the disruptive aspects of technology and proposes a multidimensional approach to ensure internet freedom and protect democracy and rule of law. The article aims to provide an overview of the problem of algorithmic accountability on digital platforms and the need for regulations to address it.