VERANSTALTUNGEN
Events in retrospect
Blockchain Summit
from 15.-19. Juli 2024 in Lissabon
In the week of 15-19 July 2024, the five-day "Blockchain Summit 2024" took place at the University of Lisbon, jointly organised by the Marburg Institute for the Law of Digitalisation (IRDi), Bocconi University in Milan and the University of Lisbon.
This year's summit was financially supported by the DAAD and the Stiftung Geld und Währung. The first Blockchain Summit took place in 2020 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen as part of the now completed BMJ project "Blockchain and Law". Conceptually, it is a further developed and innovative form of doctoral seminar, which has been intensified in terms of the depth and duration of the discourse and supplemented by interdisciplinary and international elements. The aim is to create a legal-dogmatic and legal-political exchange between internal and external doctoral students as well as between academia and legal practice.
The fifth Blockchain Summit was held under the overarching theme of "Cryptocurrencies and CBDC - Towards a new framework for digital money".
The focus was on the recently launched legislative process for the "Digital Euro Package" and the ECB's ongoing publications, in particular the new phase from October 2023 to further develop and deepen the findings of the "Blockchain Summit 2023". The discourse was also broadened to include elements of comparative law, in particular from Italy and Portugal, to provide a pan-European perspective on the digital euro and competing cryptocurrencies.
For the first time, the Blockchain Summit was held exclusively in English, in Portugal and in collaboration with two partner universities. It was also the first time that the event was open to the professional public and not limited to members of the Institute. Speakers included representatives from the Universities of Marburg, Bocconi, Porto and Lisbon, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Portuguese law firm PLMJ.
IRDi Institute and graduation ceremony with Digital Minister
14 June 2024 at the Landgrafenschloss, Marburg
With around 120 invited guests, the Institute for the Law of Digitalisation (IRDi) at the Philipps University of Marburg held its graduation ceremony at the Landgrave's Castle on 14 June 2024. The Hessian Minister for Digitalisation, Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus, outlined the formative role of the institute, which was founded in 2018, in the Hessian Digital Strategy. In a dinner speech, University President Prof. Dr. Thomas Nauss emphasised the importance of law for the University's focus on research data and AI.
The three directors of the institute, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Omlor, Prof. Dr. Florian Möslein and Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchheim, gave an overview of the academic work and research as well as the current challenges of digitalisation law.
Hesse's Minister for Digital Affairs, Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus, emphasised: "Ongoing digitalisation not only brings about social and economic changes, but also requires a continuous development of the legal perspective. With the Institute for the Law of Digitalisation at the Faculty of Law at the Philipps University of Marburg, we have an outstanding institution in Germany that is dedicated to the legal issues and challenges of digitalisation, conducts a wide range of research and is therefore one of the most important contacts in this area. In this respect, I would like to congratulate the graduates here today and hope that we will see many more doctorates in this important department and that together we can successfully shape the digital future of our country".
University President Prof. Dr. Thomas Nauss said: "As the 'Marburg' dimension of the Hessian Centre for Responsible Digitalisation, the Institute for the Law of Digitalisation contributes to shaping digitalisation in a trustworthy manner. With a view to the possible further development of the Hessian research data landscape towards a trustworthy and sovereign data platform for science, society and the economy, the Institute would thus be an important cornerstone.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, Prof Dr Sebastian Omlor outlined the history of the Institute, which was founded in 2018. Among its achievements to date, he cited the acquisition of EU, federal and state third-party funding in the mid-single-digit million range, the new degree programme on the Law of Digitalisation in Marburg, and the numerous successfully completed doctorates. The institute is now valued as a source of ideas and advice in ministries and companies. Omlor thanked both the Digital Minister and the University President for their trusting cooperation over the past years: "When the wind of change blows, some build walls and others build windmills, as the Chinese proverb says. Thank you Minister Sinemus and President Nauss for allowing us to build those windmills together.
The evening was musically accompanied by opera singer Jana Marković and pianist Nils Mille. They enchanted the guests with impressive arias from the operas 'Il barbiere di Siviglia' and 'Carmen', among others.
Blockchain Summit
from 24. - 28. Juli 2023, Kitzebühel
The fourth summit called!
Since 2020, the Institute for the Law of Digitalisation (IRDi) has organised annual interdisciplinary doctoral seminars on the topic of blockchain law.
These "Blockchain Summits" were funded by the Federal Ministry of Justice from 2020 to 2022. This year, the Blockchain Summit 2023 will take place in cooperation with the ZEVEDI project group "Tokenisation and Financial Markets (ToFi)" headed by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Omlor. The project is also funded by the Deutsche Bundesbank's Money and Currency Foundation.
More than 40 members of the Institute, in particular PhD students, will take part in the five-day Blockchain Summit in Kitzbühel. The programme includes a number of presentations by PhD students on topics such as the digital euro, the tokenisation of assets and blockchain intellectual property rights. There will also be presentations by external speakers from the field of business informatics (Prof. Dr Nils Urbach, Fraunhofer Blockchain Lab), the European Central Bank, Boston University (Anja von Rosenstiel) and the FinTech sector (Max J. Heinzle, Founder & CEO, 21finance).
Conference
"Future Financing Act" on 16 June 2023
This year's IRDi Annual Conference took place on 16 June 2023 at the Congress Centre Marburg and was dedicated to the draft Future Financing Act.
<https://www.bmj.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/Dokumente RefE_Zukunftsfinanzierungsgesetz.pdf;jsessionid=712EF00AB32757E6522824BA7C821990.1_cid289?__blob=publicationFile&v=2>,
which was presented by the BMJ and BMF in April 2023. The conference was organised jointly with the project group "Tokenisation and Financial Markets <https://zevedi.de/themen/tofi/> (ToFi)" of the Centre for Responsible Digitalisation (ZEVEDI).
The event focused in particular on facilitating access to the capital market, the regulation of general terms and conditions in the financial services sector, liability relief for crowdfunding platforms and the planned changes to company law with regard to capital increases, multi-voting shares and "crypto-shares" in accordance with the Electronic Securities Act (eWpG).
The conference began with a welcome and introduction by the Institute's co-director and speaker of the ToFi project group, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Omlor. Dr. Stephan Bredt (Hessian Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development) then spoke about future financing in the Frankfurt financial centre, followed by a presentation by Dr. Norbert Kuhn, who outlined strategies for strengthening the German capital market.
After a discussion and a break, the conference continued with Dr. Dirk Bliesener (Hengeler Müller, Frankfurt) on the topic of "Model contracts in the financial services sector". Prof. Dr. Julia Nicolussi of the University of Zurich then dealt with the facilitation of capital increases and multi-voting shares.
In the final part of the programme, Prof. Dr. Matthias Casper (University of Münster) spoke about the introduction of electronic shares in the eWpG. Finally, Dr Tobias Riethmüller (Görg, Frankfurt) spoke about liability relief for crowdfunding platforms. The conference ended with concluding remarks and an outlook by IRDi co-director Prof Dr Florian Möslein.
Interdisciplinary Conference
"Electronic Shares" on 15 May 2023
Nearly 130 participants listened to exciting presentations at the conference, which was organised by the Tokenisation and Financial Markets (ToFi) project group of the Centre for Responsible Digitalisation (ZEVEDI) in cooperation with the Marburg Institute for the Law of Digitalisation (IRDi).
We have summarised the conference proceedings for you here:
A welcome address by Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus (Hessian Minister for Digital Strategies & Development) was followed by two presentations on the legislative concept by PD Dr. Kaspar Krolop (Federal Ministry of Finance) and Dr. Alexander Dörrbecker/Uta Höhfeld (Federal Ministry of Justice).
This was followed by a short discussion before two further presentations.
These dealt with European perspectives - MiCAR, MiFID2, private law of the Union, presented by Prof. Dr. Francesco Palo Patti, LL.M., (Università Bocconi, Milan) and corporate law aspects of the electronic share, presented by Prof. Dr. Julia Lübke, LL.M. (EBS Wiesbaden).
After the lunch break, Prof. Dr. Dörte Poelzig (University of Hamburg) took a closer look at electronic shares in the context of capital market law. Prof. Dr Florian Möslein, LL.M. (London) explained the securities law aspects of electronic shares.
This comparison was followed by a short discussion, including questions and comments from the live webcast audience.
Finally, Dr. Gerald Reger (Noerr, Munich) provided insights into the use of electronic shares in advisory and notarial practice and Prof. Dr. Barbara Brandl & Dr. Carola Westermeier (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main) spoke on the topic of "Electronic Securities in the Digital Transformation". The contradictory rationalities of nation states in DLT regulation".
We would like to thank all the speakers and participants who took part in this conference.
It was a very exciting and informative event, which certainly answered some questions and shed light on some previously unknown aspects.
Transatlantic Blockchain Summit in New York
vom 30. September - 07. Oktober 2022
The Transatlantic Blockchain Summit of the Institute for the Law of Digitalisation took place in New York from 30 September to 7 October.
The research and lecture trip was part of the BMJ research project "Blockchain and Law", led by Prof Dr Sebastian Omlor. A group of 14 doctoral students together with the two co-directors of the Institute, Profes. Dres. Sebastian Omlor and Florian Möslein, took part in the central conference "Transatlantic Blockchain Law" on 3 October, which was organised and held in close cooperation with the City University of New York (CUNY).
A total of 28 speakers from both sides of the Atlantic gave presentations on various topics related to blockchain and token law. Of particular note was the high-level participation of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, represented by SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce. The two "inventors" of blockchain technology, W. Scott Stornetta and Stuart Haber, also attended the conference. Professor Omlor spoke on the classification of tokens under private law and Professor Möslein on the regulation of blockchain technology under financial market law. Aurelia Birne from the Marburg delegation also gave a presentation on digital central bank money in the Eurozone.
The programme also included numerous rounds of discussions and bilateral meetings with academics and consultants on blockchain issues. The visit to Cornell Tech, which opened its new campus on New York's Roosevelt Island a few years ago, is representative of the academic exchange. There was an intensive exchange with the Dean on subject-specific topics, but also on the courses offered there for German students. A panel discussion took place in the New York offices of the major US law firm Goodwin Procter, which is also a member of the Marburg Institute's support association. Exciting insights into the firm's extensive blockchain practice were provided. Finally, in addition to blockchain technology, general FinTech topics were discussed with Noerr's New York team, particularly in relation to capital markets law.
Interdisciplinary Conference
"Quality of Artificial Intelligence: Evaluation, Assurance, Application Examples". on the 07 July 2022
We were very pleased to be able to meet again in person on 7 July 2022.
The project group Standardisation of Artificial Intelligence (NoKI) - State, System, Enforcement of the Centre for Responsible Digitalisation (ZEVEDI) organised the interdisciplinary conference on "Quality of Artificial Intelligence: Assessment, Assurance, Application Examples".
The conference focused on normative and ethical problems that can arise in the course of quality assurance of artificially intelligent systems.
The focus was on the quality assurance of AI applications in the financial sector, where the particular normative challenges were examined from a practical and theoretical perspective.
We were delighted that Prof Dr Kristina Sinemus (Hessian Minister for Digital Strategy and Development) and Prof Dr Thomas Nauss (President, Philipps University Marburg) joined us via video message to open the conference.
Prof Dr Thomas Riehm (University of Passau) opened the first part of the day with his presentation on civil liability for artificial intelligence. This was followed by a presentation by Dr Erik Weiss (University of Cologne) on "Certification of Artificial Intelligence".
Both presentations were followed by an open discussion.
After the coffee break, the panel discussion with Dr Sebastian Hallensleben (Head of Competence Field Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, VDE), Ms Marit Hansen (Data Protection Commissioner of Schleswig-Holstein), Prof. Dr Martin Hirsch (Institute for Artificial Intelligence, University Hospital Marburg) and Ms Filiz Elmas (Head of Business Unit Development Artificial Intelligence, DIN e. V.) started.
The last part of the day was dedicated to "Industry-specific AI applications in the financial sector".
In addition to the presentation on "Robo Advice" by PD Dr Dimitrios (Linardatos, University of Liechtenstein), there were presentations by Prof Dr Wolf-Georg Ringe (University of Hamburg) on "Algorithmic Trading", Ms Lisa Bechtold, Ph.D., LL.M. (Zurich Insurance, Zurich) on "AI Use in the Insurance Group" and Prof Dr Katja Langenbucher (Goethe University Frankfurt/M.) on "Credit Scoring".
All in all, a conference full of topical issues and exciting discussions!
Many thanks to the speakers who filled this conference with life!
Doctoral seminar
"Blockchain Summit" from 13 June - 17 June 2022
The summit called again this year, and together with over 40 PhD students we made it to the top in Kitzbühel.
This year's doctoral seminar focused on issues related to blockchain, central bank digital currency (CBDC), cryptocurrencies, electronic securities law, money laundering, comparative law and much more.
The first lecture was on "Law of Obligations and Cryptocurrencies", a topic that will certainly appear in various civil law exams in the future.
The other lectures dealt with questions such as "Is an electronic security a thing of sui generis?" and "Can arbitration clauses be integrated into blockchain program codes?".
Dr Markus Burkow from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) gave the opening presentation on crypto regulation.
At the end of the seminar, Junior Professor Dr Lucia Sommerer gave a presentation on crypto money laundering.
It was a very educational and enjoyable week.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made this seminar possible!
Online-Symposium on the topic
"Schwarm Finanzing and Crowdlending" on 29. Oktober 2021
This year's online symposium was entitled "Swarm financing and crowdlending under the new ESCP legislation".
The symposium opened with a welcome address by Prof Dr Petra Buck-Heeb.
This was followed by a presentation on legal policy by Dr Jörg Kukies, who discussed, among other things, personal liability under the German Accompanying Act.
Dr Jens Engelmann-Pilger discussed the opportunities and risks for SMEs and investors as well as the scope and definitions of the ECSP Regulation.
Shortly before the end of the symposium, the topic of investor protection was taken up and discussed in more detail.
We would like to thank all the co-organisers, speakers and participants for the interesting and informative discussions - this online symposium was a major step forward in the academic, legal policy and legal practice penetration of crowdfunding in Germany.
Seminar for PhD students
"Blockchain Summit 2021" from 28 June 2021 to 02 July 2021
We were very pleased that the PhD seminar "Blockchain Summit 2021" could take place again this year despite the difficult circumstances.
The seminar started with white water rafting before continuing with various presentations.
"Consumer protection and tokens" and "Absolute protection of tokens" opened the first day of lectures.
Blockchain and Data Protection" and "Blockchain-based Payment Means in the Light of Data Protection Law" took place shortly before the European Championship Round of 16.
After a hike up the Wank, lectures on "Transnational Model Rules for Smart Contracts" and "Blockchain Corporate Law" took place until a short break was scheduled.
The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to "Crypto Custody" and "Decentralised Finance".
As in the previous year, the last day of the seminar featured several presentations.
First, Ms Fabiane Völter presented "Blockchain and SSI", followed by a discussion.
The two blockchain-based presentations by Dr Jan Peter Schmütsch and Matthias von Hauff filled the middle of the day, before lawyer and notary Dr Stephan Meyer, LL.M. rounded off the day with a presentation on the "Swiss DLT Act".
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our speakers and participants once again!
Online conference on
"Legal Issues of Digitalisation" on 18 June 2021
At this online conference, we were able to listen to many exciting presentations on the topic of "Legal Issues of Digitalisation".
Among other things, we discussed the EU crypto regulation and the current issues around electronic securities.
The European private law of digitalisation was also discussed at this conference.
Artificial intelligence and copyright, the Digital Content Directive and EU data protection law were the main topics of the day.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the speakers for their fruitful presentations.
Hybrid conference on the topic of
"Electronic Securities" on 26 February 2021
The theme of this hybrid conference was "Electronic Securities".
It focused on the classification from a political and technical perspective and the treatment of regulatory proposals.
The different types of securities were first presented by Prof Dr Matthias Lehmann D.E.A. (Paris II), LL.M., J.S.D. (Columbia).
Prof Dr Matthias Habersack then gave a presentation on the comparison of central registries and crypto registries.
Later in the day, Founding Director Prof Dr Sebastian Omlor discussed the civil law issues surrounding the sale of electronic securities.
All in all, this conference was very informative from the point of view of the newly enacted Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) and addressed the challenges very well.
Doctoral Seminar
"Blockchain Summit 2020" from 31 August 2020 to 4 September 2020
This year's "Blockchain Summit" PhD seminar also took place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
As befits a summit, there was a joint hike with a guided tour through the Partnach gorge before the day continued with various lectures.
The first day was dedicated to "The IPR of Blockchain", "The Private Law of Tokenisation", "Blockchain Technology and Public Registries" and "Tokenisation in a Legal Comparison between Germany and Malta". On the following day, topics related to "securities" in the context of digitalisation were discussed, as well as the examination of distributed liability in distributed networks and smart contracts in the context of general terms and conditions law. The Blockchain Summit 2020 concluded with presentations on technology/computer science (Prof. Dr Florian Matthes), economics (Prof. Dr Nils Urbach) and start-ups with discussion (Katharina Gehra).
Prof Dr Judith Sild also gave us a presentation on comparative law with a discussion on "Blockchain regulation in Liechtenstein".
Online conference on the topic
"Digital Values" on 19 June 2020
This year's conference took place on 19 June 2020 under the theme "Digital Values". One focus of the event was the proposed legislation on electronic bonds. However, the event also focused on financial market and monetary law issues related to tokenisation, namely digital shareholding, digital fund shares, central bank cryptocurrencies and trading venues for digital assets.
A detailed programme of speakers and topics, as well as the online conference registration form, can be found here:
Conference Programme 2020 (pdf)
Conference on the topic
" Corporate Law in the Digital Transformation" in June 2019
Last year's conference took place on 7 June 2019 under the theme "Corporate Law in the Digital Transformation". Last year's event focused on the national status quo and European comparison of digitalisation in corporate law, as well as the impact of artificial intelligence, blockchain and other automated systems on corporate law.
For a detailed programme including speakers and topics, as well as the registration form for the conference, please click here:
Conference Programme 2019 (pdf)
An evening of lectures with the title
"Digitalisation of Law: Studies, Exams and Career
in cooperation with the law firm Fieldfisher" in winter term 2018/19
In the winter semester 2018/19, the Institute for the Law of Digitalisation hosted its first lecture evening under the motto "Digitalisation of Law: Studies, Exams and Profession". In contrast to the founding conference in August this year, the lecture evening was primarily aimed at students of the Faculty of Law at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. A large number of students took up the invitation, and the packed auditorium provided a great stage for the invited speakers.
PD Dr Alexander Stöhr opened the event with a talk on the impact of digitalisation on legal studies. Dr Stöhr explained the intersections between the traditional content of legal studies and advancing digitalisation. Particular attention was paid to the case scenarios that will be part of legal education in the future and which will therefore increasingly appear in degree programmes and state examinations.
Pia Figgei then presented her work at the Federal Office of Justice and explained how increasing digitalisation is also finding its way there and what challenges need to be overcome in this context. Examples of this were discussed in the context of social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter and hate speech on the Internet.
The last speaker to take the stage was Kai Ebert, co-founder and chairman of the Munich LegalTech Student Association. His presentation gave an overview of the LegalTech sector and its development. A particular focus was on developments in the German legal sector. In addition, the presentation showed how students can get actively involved in order to have a voice in current legal debates. To illustrate this, Mr Ebertz ended his presentation with an insight into the activities and goals of the Munich LegalTech Student Association.
At the end of the evening, Mr Thilo Danz, lawyer and partner in the Frankfurt office of the law firm Fieldfisher, spoke briefly to the students and introduced the firm and its future-oriented focus. Mr Danz emphasised that digitalisation will continue to play an increasingly important role in the practice of law and that well-trained graduates are therefore needed in this field.
Conference on the subject
"Digitalisation - Law - Finance" in June 2018
In June 2018, the inaugural conference of the Institute for the Law of Digitalisation took place in Marburg on the topic of "Digitalisation - Law - Finance". The focus of the event, which will be continued annually with a different main topic, was on FinTech and blockchain. Renowned speakers examined the digitalisation of banking law from various perspectives. In several discussion rounds, there was room for a fruitful exchange between case law, doctrine, advisory legal practice and the supervisory authority.
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Ellenberger, Vice President of the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) and Chairman of the XI. Civil Senate, opened the lecture series by presenting a judgment of the eleventh Civil Senate of the German Federal Court of Justice on online banking (Case No. XI ZR 91/14 = MMR 2016, 382). Prof. Dr. Lars Hornuf, University of Bremen, Chair of Business Administration, in particular Financial Services and Financial Technology, then gave a comprehensive market overview of FinTech in Germany. Hornuf led two research projects on this topic at the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2016, and has published extensive studies on the topic.
The relevance of blockchain technology and its current manifestations (e.g. bitcoin, ICO) in Germany was then presented by Florian Glatz, President of the German Blockchain Association, in a plea for blockchain. Prof. Dr. Gerald Spindler, University of Göttingen, then examined legal issues in the area of crowdfunding, in particular general contract law and conflict of laws issues. Dr Alexis Darányi, Scalable Capital, then presented the digital investment market.
Prof. Dr Christian Armbrüster, FU Berlin, then presented nine theses on the digital conclusion of insurance contracts, and finally Dr Angela Loff, Policy Division of the Consumer Protection Department at the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), presented the financial supervisory perspective in relation to ICOs.
