Artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and the ever-growing importance of data are not only transforming the economy and society but are also presenting new challenges for the legal system. How can a legal system be applied to a digital world whose technological landscape is constantly changing? Professor Karsten Löw at Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences is addressing these questions. Since last year, he has held the chair in “Business Law, with a focus on the law of digitalization as well as commercial and corporate law.”
Digitalization creates new opportunities, but at the same time gives rise to new areas of legal conflict. Data can be stolen or shared, digital business models raise new questions, and the use of artificial intelligence challenges traditional notions of responsibility and liability. “The law must respond to these developments without abandoning its fundamental functions,” is how the resulting challenge in this field of research is described.
Who actually owns data?
The issue becomes particularly clear when considering data. In civil law, data is an unusual type of property: Unlike traditional goods, data can be used, copied, and shared by multiple people at the same time. Furthermore, it has no fixed location and cannot easily be legally attributed to a single owner. To date, there is no general right of ownership over data.
Nevertheless, data already plays an important role in civil law today. For example, it can be the subject of contracts, such as when training data is purchased through cloud services. Defective apps or digital services also raise questions regarding liability and contract termination. The European Data Act goes one step further: Among other things, it gives users the ability to access data generated by products such as vehicles, use it themselves, and share it with third parties.
This example illustrates just how profoundly digital issues are already influencing traditional areas of law. At the same time, it becomes clear that the legal status of data is still far from being definitively clarified. Löw therefore also addresses the question of how the currently fragmented approach to data could be made more coherent. At the political level, there are discussions underway regarding a more comprehensive “Data Code.”
Open Source and the Regulation of AI
This field of research extends far beyond data law. Another key focus is the legal treatment of open-source artificial intelligence. Legal exceptions are intended to promote open and transparent AI models. In Löw’s view, however, regulation falls short if it defines open source primarily by the absence of commercial use. Rather, what is crucial is actual accessibility, verifiability, and the possibility of further development.
Political governance and oversight of high-risk AI systems also raise fundamental legal questions. When powerful systems are developed and deployed outside the European market, existing European regulations may reach their limits. At the same time, the question arises as to how independent and effective national oversight structures must be.
The various fields of research are thus linked by a central question: How can the law keep pace with a technology that is changing faster than many of the existing legal regulations? For Karsten Löw, this is precisely where the academic and societal relevance of the law of digitalization lies. It is about legally mapping uncharted territory whose boundaries are constantly shifting.
Study the Law of Digitalization
Anyone interested in these topics can make them the focus of their studies at Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences. The bachelor’s program in “Law of Digitalization (LL.B.)” combines legal fundamentals with business law, IT law, and technological issues. Topics such as data protection, legal tech, technology regulation, and artificial intelligence are just as much a part of the program as practice-oriented projects and case studies.
Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences also offers additional bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in the field of business law, including Business Law and International Business Law, as well as the master’s program in Business Law.
The application deadline for the winter semester is September 15. Interested applicants should therefore act quickly to learn more about the degree programs and application options at Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences.