Third-party funded projects

2019/2020

INWEND (together with Ralph Bergmann), BMBF-Project

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has led to some legal uncertainty. Quite a few companies, associations and other institutions have taken legal advice in order to implement the new law correctly. Many citizens are also affected by its provisions - often without knowing it: Practically every individual handles the personal data of others and can thus quickly become an addressee of the provisions of the GDPR.For someone who blogs privately, shares photos on social media or runs a fan page, however, it is much more difficult to understand the data protection regulations and apply them correctly.

This may initially lead to an implementation deficit of data protection law - its requirements are not (fully) complied with. Conversely, there is a danger that the legal requirements deter people from implementing desirable projects, even though they could have been implemented in a data protection-compliant manner. Both consequences are unsatisfactory.

The INWEND project is an interdisciplinary research project in which business informatics specialists and lawyers at the University of Trier are working on software that can make legal recommendations in a subarea of data protection law. The INWEND project is an interdisciplinary research project in which business informatics specialists and lawyers at the University of Trier are working on software that can make legal recommendations in a subarea of data protection law.

Within the framework of the project, a prototypical knowledge-based system will be developed to guide the user through the legal examination of his or her case. As a pilot project, the research project will also clarify the extent to which informatic methods can be made usable for tasks in the core area of legal application, thus laying the foundation for future interdisciplinary research in this area.

The paper entitled "INWEND: Using CBR to automate legal assessment in the context of the EU General Data Protection Regulation", which Mr Schriml presented at the Intelligent Future Days 2020, is available here.

Prof. Dr Raue and Mr Schriml from the Institute are involved in the project.

Participation in project Mining and Modeling Text (MIMOText) Sponsor: Research Initiative of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate

Digitisation is making increasingly extensive text and data resources available. The consortium is facing the challenge that, in order to use them efficiently in the humanities, it is necessary to develop innovative procedures that allow the automatic extraction of information and promote the generation of knowledge based on it.

Against this background, the project deals with the automatic extraction, structuring and networking of specialised information from text and data collections as well as with the use of such information networks for answering questions in the humanities.The first context of application is German and French literary history, but the transferability of the methods to other disciplines is considered from the beginning. The project takes into account different types of texts: from easily structured texts (e.g. bibliographical lists) to non-fiction texts in the humanities (e.g. specialist literature in literary history) to literary texts (e.g. novels).

The core concern is to develop interdisciplinary approaches to solutions, whereby conceptual, humanities, informatics, legal and infrastructural issues and procedures intertwine.

IRDT contributes its legal expertise to the project. From the Institute involved in the project are Prof. Dr. Raue, Prof. Dr. von Ungern-Sternberg und Frau Erler-Fridgen.

Workshops „Strategies for making copyright-protected text collections usable for research by third parties", funding by the DFG

The IRDT, together with the Trier Center for Digital Humanities Competence Centre, has organised an expert workshop on "Strategies for making copyright-protected text collections usable for research by third parties", which is funded by the DFG.

The welcoming address was given by the President of the University of Trier. The workshop series aims to develop practical solutions based on current copyright law and to present to the academic and library sectors how useful information can be published for specific research questions.

Copyrighted text data is to be transformed in such a way that it loses its copyrighted form, but certain text-and-data mining analysis procedures can still be carried out.

Conference Algorithmised Law Enforcement, Funding by the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung

Digitalisation enables a degree of law enforcement in more and more areas that was previously unthinkable.

At first glance, this is pleasing. Law is enacted so that it is obeyed. Legal norms that are constantly broken lose their claim to validity.  In addition, increased compliance with the law improves individual legal protection. If technical means ensure that cars cannot be driven faster than permitted and especially not by a drunk driver, this saves human lives. If a car bought on credit can no longer be started when a loan instalment due is missed, this increases the likelihood of payment and reduces the need to resort to the courts.This lowers the cost of loans and increases the willingness to grant them. This seems to argue for the legislator to ensure compliance by technology as far as possible or to allow corresponding private legal practices (compliance by design?).

At second glance, however, some fundamental questions arise: Can one actually still speak of law when rules are not primarily followed voluntarily by those subject to the norm, but because they essentially cannot act otherwise? Must there be freedom to violate the law, even if the violation is later sanctioned?In which areas do we really want to achieve full compliance with norms in a free society? In particular, it must be borne in mind that societal and social change often develops from the margins of what is socially and legally acceptable. Exploring grey areas and determining what is legally permissible in a process of judicial negotiation are part of a liberal legal system.For example, the social phenomenon of internet memes could hardly have developed if their uploading onto large internet platforms had been technically prevented due to conflicting copyrights. Provocatively, one could ask: Is there a right to break the law? And finally: What defines the core of law in an increasingly digital society?

We want to discuss the topics intensively and intradisciplinarily at the scientific conference of the Institute for Law and Digitalisation Trier (IRDT).