Category Archives: European Private Law
Fouad Maged, ‘A Commercial Ceasefire: Why the EU-US Data Privacy Framework Cannot Survive Schrems III’
ABSTRACT The adequacy mechanism under GDPR Article 45 is structurally incapable of delivering legal certainty across divergent constitutional orders without a binding international treaty. Despite representing the most sophisticated transatlantic data transfer arrangement to date, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework remains a ‘commercial ceasefire’ built on executive discretion rather than structural reform and is likely […]
Emmanuel Abrokwa, ‘Does the GDPR Impede AI Progress? A Critical Analysis’
ABSTRACT One of the most critical and difficult issues in modern European digital law is the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and the General Data Protection Regulation. The conflict between data protection standards and AI’s operational needs has moved from theoretical debate to urgent regulatory concern as machine learning systems become more advanced and widely adopted. […]
Olga Boltenko-Kroon, ‘The civil law foundation as a structural alternative to the common law trust in conditions of geopolitical risk’
ABSTRACT The professional services prohibitions introduced by Article 5m of Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 have rendered the common law trust inoperable for large categories of clients, exposing a structural vulnerability inherent in its dependence on regulated third parties. This article examines the civil law foundation as a structural alternative, with primary focus on the […]
‘The CJEU Anne Frank judgment and its broader implications (including for the internet and, obviously, AI too)’
A few days ago, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its judgment in Anne Frank, C-788/24, a referral from the Netherlands concerning the right of communication to the public under Article 3(1) of the InfoSoc Directive and liability for the online publication of a work – The Diary of Anne Frank […]
Ines Duhanic, ‘Copyright liability for AI-outputs: the impact of Mio/konektra on staged photography’
ABSTRACT The Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf has clarified that the use of an AI-generated output to mimic a professional photograph does not constitute copyright infringement where the AI adopts only the unprotectable motif rather than the photographer’s specific, creative technical execution. € Ines Duhanic, Copyright liability for AI-outputs: the impact of Mio/konektra on staged […]
Schillig and Meissner, ‘Cryptoassets Regulation and Private Law’
ABSTRACT Cryptoasset markets have expanded rapidly over recent years and, accordingly, have garnered significant regulatory attention. By contrast, the integration of cryptoassets within the relevant private and commercial law has been much more restrained and limited. We try to map the complex interactions of cryptoassets regulation – primarily focusing on MiCAR – with private and […]
Diego Sebastián Carranza Medrano, ‘Fiduciary duties without equity: how civil law systems achieve trust-like outcomes through statutory codification’
ABSTRACT When UK investors enter Latin American markets, they expect equitable remedies such as tracing or constructive trusts. Civil law systems achieve trust-like outcomes through statutory codification, not equity. This article compares the Honduran ‘fideicomiso’ with the English trust, showing that while asset segregation is functionally equivalent, proprietary remedies are absent. It analyses regional divergence […]
Dominik Dworniczak, ‘Regulation in the Making: The Governance Effects of Civil Liability in EU Digital Regulation’
ABSTRACT This article argues that civil liability in EU digital regulation does more than enforce regulatory duties or compensate damage arising from regulatory breaches: it also produces governance effects by specifying regulatory duties and (re)allocating regulatory risks between market actors. Drawing on regulatory theory and examples from the case law of the Court of Justice […]
Gonzalo Larrea, ‘The Quest for “Corporate Sustainability”: Reconciling a Multi-Layered Concept with Competitiveness’
ABSTRACT ‘Corporate sustainability’ has recently become a central concept in regulation, particularly within the European Union. Yet, despite its widespread use, the term remains conceptually vague and legally fragmented. This article critically examines how EU law conceptualizes and operationalizes corporate sustainability. It demonstrates that there is no unified legal definition; rather, the EU adopts a […]
‘Copyright, Targeting and Geo-Blocking: The CJEU Stirs the Pot’
The CJEU’s recent copyright decision in Anne Frank endorses state of the art geo-blocking as an effective way of shielding a website from the different copyright laws of another EU Member State. Although the result on the facts is welcome, the potential implications of the Court’s underlying reasoning are less so. At a principled level, […]