ABSTRACT
Data has become one of the most important resources in postmodern information society. However, European civil law does not reflect this development adequately. In fact, so far, European civil law seems to struggle with handling data as a legal entity. Against this background, the article provides a transnational overview and a comprehensive analysis of the legal situation in Europe. It discusses why data ownership is widely perceived as a problem on this side of the Atlantic and how this perception can be overcome by a fundamental property law approach. Taking into account economic realities, we argue that European property law provides a sufficient framework for establishing a theoretical concept of data ownership. Therefore, we draft the dimensions of a data ownership concept by proposing potential criteria for assigning ownership and analyzing both positive access and negative restriction rights.
Andreas Boerding, Nicolai Culik, Christian Doepke, Thomas Hoeren and Tim Juelicher, Data Ownership – A Property Rights Approach from a European Perspective, Journal of Civil Law Studies volume 11 number 2 (2018) article 5.
First posted 2019-04-02 12:55:09
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