Summer School 2017
First serve - A review of the Summer School ‘IT Law and Legal Informatics 2017’
The first ‘Summer School IT Law and Legal Informatics’ took place on the campus of Saarland University from 21 August to 1 September 2017. About 20 participants from Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Japan, Luxembourg and Germany enjoyed two weeks of a varied mix of academic and cultural activities. High-profile lecturers from the United Kingdom, Japan, Austria and Germany gave presentations on four topics: ‘Autonomous systems’, ‘Internet of Things and IT Security’, ‘Data Protection and Big Data’ and ‘Legal Tech’. The summer school was organised and hosted by the chairs of Professor Georg Borges and Professor Christoph Sorge in cooperation with saaris (saarland.innovation&standort e. V.).
After the official opening by Professor Roland Michael Beckmann, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Georg Borges introduced the topics. After the very first lecture, the young researchers engaged in lively discussions, including whether robots and autonomous systems could potentially become legal entities. Many more exciting lectures followed over the course of the two weeks: Professor Takehiko Kasahara (Toin University of Yokohama, Japan) spoke about the ‘cyber campus’ and the metamorphosis of the internet. Professor Erich Schweighofer (University of Vienna, Austria) provided fascinating insights into the areas of big data and data protection. Fumio Shimpo, Ph.D. (Keio University, Kanagawa, Japan) also reported on data protection from a Japanese perspective. Other topics included the problem of phishing in online banking (Caroline Hertwig and Sonia Oleownik, both from Saarland University), the liability of WiFi providers (Andreas Sesing, Saarland University) and e-commerce (Silke Güse, Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences). After the lectures by the professors, who also travelled from Copenhagen and Sofia, the participants had the opportunity to give a presentation on a topic of their choice from one of the four subject areas and then discuss it with the plenary. Following on from the summer school, there are also plans to publish a conference proceedings volume with contributions from the participants and lecturers.
In addition to the intensive academic programme, there were also a variety of tourist attractions on offer. Most participants were visiting Saarland for the first time and took the opportunity to get to know the cultural and culinary life of the state capital Saarbrücken. Excursions were also organised, including a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte, a trip to the Saar Loop and a visit to Trier, which was a special experience thanks to the expert guidance of former State Secretary Wolfgang Schild. One of the highlights of the accompanying programme was a guided tour of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. Two exciting weeks ended with a tour of Speyer Cathedral, followed by wine tasting on the beautiful Wine Route.
The first edition of the Summer School was a resounding success! We hope that our guests from all over the world will long remember the successful combination of personal development in highly relevant areas of law and the cultural programme.