Diktat der Technik

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louisa Specht

This study discusses the effects of technology on how the content of contracts is designed. For example, today e-books can be equipped with a technological protection mechanism which prevents them from being copied, which means that an agreement under private law which stipulates that a book cannot be copied is no longer necessary. However, if a contracting party is able to dispense with action using technological means because the design of technological devices allows it to do so, this technology then displaces legal regulations. Therefore, this study examines the boundaries which the technological design of contractual objects is subject to and what effects its application has on the institution of contractual freedom, because if a contractual regulation is replaced by technological design, it threatens to nullify regulations such as §§ 134, 138 of German Basic Law, Germany’s consumer protection law or even the limiting conditions of its copyright law. This work develops mechanisms to counteract the law being undermined by technology in this way.

Der Staat ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-272
Author(s):  
Torben Ellerbrok

In der Rechtsprechung zum Verfassungsrecht wird mitunter der Gedanke fruchtbar gemacht, dass Normen des Grundgesetzes nicht umgangen werden dürften. Während aber im zivilrechtlichen Diskurs Bestand und methodische Verortung eines Umgehungsverbots seit Langem diskutiert werden, wurde einem „Verbot der Verfassungsumgehung“ bisher nicht näher nachgegangen. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, dass zwar ein hoher Abstraktionsgrad zahlreicher verfassungsrechtlicher Normen einer Umgehungsmöglichkeit entgegensteht und die Spezifika der Verfassungsauslegung zu berücksichtigen sind, auch das Grundgesetz aber rigide, umgehungsanfällige Normen enthält. Dort kann ein Umgehungsverbot ins Werk gesetzt werden, indem der Anwendungsbereich einer Norm über ihren Wortsinn hinaus ausgedehnt wird. Diese teleologische Verfassungsextension, eine Form richterlicher Rechtsfortbildung, ist nach hier vertretener Ansicht vorzunehmen, wenn Wortsinn und Ziel einer Verfassungsnorm divergieren, ein hoheitliches Handeln nicht dem Wortsinn, aber dem Ziel einer Norm zuwiderläuft und schließlich eine Eingriffsschwelle überschritten ist. Diese liegt bei der Verfassungsfortbildung aus näher aufgezeigten Gründen besonders hoch. Relevant werden kann hier insbesondere eine Umgehungsabsicht. Jurisprudence on constitutional law sometimes makes use of the idea that the norms of the Basic Law may not be circumvented. However, while scholarship on private law has long debated whether a prohibition of circumvention exists and how to place it methodologically, a “prohibition of constitutional circumvention” has not yet been examined in detail. As this article demonstrates, the fact that many constitutional norms are very abstract prevents circumvention, and the specifics of constitutional interpretation must be taken into account. Nevertheless, the Basic Law also contains rigid norms that are susceptible to circumvention. In this case, a prohibition of circumvention can be put into effect by extending a norm’s scope of application beyond its literal meaning. This teleological extension of the constitution, a form of judicial development of the law, must be carried out if the literal meaning and the purpose of a constitutional norm diverge, if a sovereign act runs counter not to the literal meaning but to the objective of a norm, and finally, if a threshold of interference is exceeded. This threshold is particularly high in the case of the further development of the constitution for reasons explained in greater detail. In particular, an intention to circumvent can become relevant here.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bono Budi Priambodo

Adat law has been narrowly understood, mainly as part of private law, in the curricula of Indonesian law schools. This is in contrary to the original intent of adat law, both as an academic and policy discourse, at the first place, which was as an attempt to develop a legal system that is suitable to govern the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) for preventing violation against the indigenous sense of justice. This article seeks to clarify the actual purpose of Adat Law, as it conceived, in the living of traditional community and the relation between adat law and Indonesian state law following the Indonesian independence. Subsequently, this article would explore how constitutional law and administrative laws (staatsrecht) would place “Adat law” under the Indonesian legal system that might be well claimed as an autochthonous law of Indonesia. It is a legal writing that uses historical, statutory, and case approaches. It has been found out that Adat Law scholarship had a pragmatic purpose i.e. to administer justice and govern the NEI colony that reflects a characteristic of public law. The later development showed that the law has shifted its focus into private law fields such as the law of persons, marriage and family laws, property and inheritance laws. Such shifting leads Adat law into an obscured relation between Adat Law and public laws in the era of the post-independence of Indonesia. It can be concluded that under historical inquiry, the Basic Law of 1945 (Indonesian Constitution) has strongly inspired by Adat Law. The same goes for administrative law, which in this case is represented by BAL that governs not only land administration but all kinds of natural resources in Indonesia until nowadays.


Author(s):  
Pascale Chapdelaine

This chapter proposes two principles that should inform the development of copyright law and policy and of user rights. The first calls for more cohesion between copyright law, private law, and public law, and for less exceptionalism in copyright law. The second requires that the balance in copyright law be adjusted for its future application as a mediation tool between the competing interests of copyright holders, users, intermediaries, and the public. Instituting positive obligations for copyright holders in relation to users and steering freedom of contract toward the objectives of copyright law are necessary regulatory changes to rectify ongoing imbalances. The principle of technological neutrality should guide the judiciary in its application of copyright’s objective of promoting a balance in copyright law. The proposed guiding principles lead to the creation of a taxonomy and hierarchy of copyright user rights that take into account the myriad ways users experience copyright works.


Author(s):  
John Gardner

Torts and Other Wrongs is a collection of eleven of the author’s essays on the theory of the law of torts and its place in the law more generally. Two new essays accompany nine previously published pieces, a number of which are already established classics of theoretical writing on private law. Together they range across the distinction between torts and other wrongs, the moral significance of outcomes, the nature and role of corrective and distributive justice, the justification of strict liability, the nature of the reasonable person standard, and the role of public policy in private law adjudication. Though focused on the law of torts, the wide-ranging analysis in each chapter will speak to theorists of private law more generally.


Author(s):  
Michel Meyer

Chapter 7 deals with one of the most traditional aspects of rhetoric, namely literature. It describes a basic law of literary rhetoric which accounts for the increasing problematicity of literary language in novels, poetry, and drama. This chapter also explains the evolution of literary criticism. The fact that literature is less and less linear in its narratives, and is increasingly enigmatic (Joyce or Kafka) is accounted for by the law of auto-contextualization of the problematic in the fictional answers. This law encourages the reader to provide the meaning of the text, even when it is considered as impossible or equivocal and pluralistic. The four main schools of literary interpretation correspond to our four basic operators of rhetoric: Mimetic for =, Hermeneutics for ±, Reception Theory for + (the reader is the “plus” of the interpretation of the text), and Deconstruction for –.


Author(s):  
Daniel B. Kelly

This chapter analyzes how law and economics influences private law and how (new) private law is influencing law and economics. It focuses on three generation or “waves” within law and economics and how they approach private law. In the first generation, many scholars took the law as a starting point and attempted to use economic insights to explain, justify, or reform legal doctrines, institutions, and structures. In the second generation, the “law” at times became secondary, with more focus on theory and less focus on doctrines, institutions, and structures. But this generation also relied increasingly on empirical analysis. In the third generation, which includes scholars in the New Private Law (NPL), there has been a resurgence of interest in the law and legal institutions. To be sure, NPL scholars analyze the law using various approaches, with some more and some less predisposed to economic analysis. However, economic analysis will continue to be a major force on private law, including the New Private Law, for the foreseeable future. The chapter considers three foundational private law areas: property, contracts, and torts. For each area, it discusses the major ideas that economic analysis has contributed to private law, and surveys contributions of the NPL. The chapter also looks at the impact of law and economics on advanced private law areas, such as business associations, trusts and estates, and intellectual property.


Author(s):  
Molly Shaffer Van Houweling

This chapter studies intellectual property (IP). A hallmark of the New Private Law (NPL) is attentiveness to and appreciation of legal concepts and categories, including the traditional categories of the common law. These categories can sometimes usefully be deployed outside of the traditional common law, to characterize, conceptualize, and critique other bodies of law. For scholars interested in IP, for example, common law categories can be used to describe patent, copyright, trademark, and other fields of IP as more or less “property-like” or “tort-like.” Thischapter investigates both the property- and tort-like features of IP to understand the circumstances under which one set of features tends to dominate and why. It surveys several doctrines within the law of copyright that demonstrate how courts move along the property/tort continuum depending on the nature of the copyrighted work at issue—including, in particular, how well the work’s protected contours are defined. This conceptual navigation is familiar, echoing how common law courts have moved along the property/tort continuum to address disputes over distinctive types of tangible resources.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Katharina Pistor

Abstract In this brief introduction, I summarize the core themes of my book “The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality”. Capital, I argue, is coded in law – predominantly in a handful of private law institutions. By relying on legal coding techniques, asset holders invoke the right to enforce claims against others, if necessary with the help of the state’s coercive power.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Simon N.M. Young

The Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (NSL) was passed on June 30, 2020 by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC). It did not have immediate direct effect in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). After consulting the Committee for the Basic Law of the HKSAR (BLC) and the Government of the HKSAR (HKSARG), the NPCSC added the NSL to Annex III of The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (Basic Law) before the Chief Executive of the HKSAR (Chief Executive) promulgated the NSL for local application. All this happened on June 30, enabling the NSL to enter into force at 11 p.m., just ahead of the twenty-third anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR on July 1, 2020.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-136
Author(s):  
Adam J. Kolber
Keyword(s):  
The Law ◽  

Abstract The law inevitably draws lines. These lines distinguish, for example, whether certain conduct reflects ordinary recklessness constituting manslaughter or more extreme recklessness constituting murder. There is no way to meaningfully draw such lines, however, absent shared ways of representing amounts of recklessness or at least knowledge of the consequences of drawing lines in particular places. Yet legal actors frequently draw lines in the dark, establishing cutoffs along a spectrum with little or none of the information required to do so in a way that suits the law’s goals. For example, jurors must decide whether some conduct constitutes extreme recklessness without knowing prior precedent nor the sentencing consequences of drawing cutoffs in particular places. Judges and lawyers cite line drawing precedents from other jurisdictions without considering whether the lines drawn in prior cases had the same consequences as those in the case at bar. And scholars argue about how to classify conduct without making clear what consequences they believe ought to attach once the classification is made, leaving it hard to tell when scholars have substantive or simply superficial disagreements. In this Article, I discuss some line drawing problems and briefly suggest ways we can add meaning to cutoffs. More generally, I argue, we can “smooth” certain features of the law to both reduce our vulnerability to line drawing in the dark and improve the fit between the law and what our best theories of law recommend. Even when we cannot easily smooth the law, thinking about the law in a smoother fashion can help reduce the jurisprudential pathologies I describe.


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