Dário Moura Vicente – författare

This book identifies and explains the different national approaches to data protection – the legal regulation of the collection, storage, transmission and use of information concerning identified or identifiable individuals – and determines the extent to which they could be harmonised in the foreseeable future.

In recent years, data protection has become a major concern in many countries, as well as at supranational and international levels. In fact, the emergence of computing technologies that allow lower-cost processing of increasing amounts of information, associated with the advent and exponential use of the Internet and other communication networks and the widespread liberalization of the trans-border flow of information have enabled the large-scale collection and processing of personal data, not only for scientific or commercial uses, but also for political uses. A growing number of governmental and private organizations now possess and use data processing in order todetermine, predict and influence individual behavior in all fields of human activity. This inevitably entails new risks, from the perspective of individual privacy, but also other fundamental rights, such as the right not to be discriminated against, fair competition between commercial enterprises and the proper functioning of democratic institutions.

These phenomena have not been ignored from a legal point of view: at the national, supranational and international levels, an increasing number of regulatory instruments – including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation applicable as of 25 May 2018 – have been adopted with the purpose of preventing personal data misuse. Nevertheless, distinct national approaches still prevail in this domain, notably those that separate the comprehensive and detailed protective rules adopted in Europe since the 1995 Directive on the processing of personal data from the more fragmented and liberal attitude of American courts and legislators in this respect. In a globalized world, in which personal data can instantly circulate and be used simultaneously in communications networks that are ubiquitous by nature, these different national and regional approaches are a major source of legal conflict.

As computational power, the volume of available data, IT systems’ autonomy, and the human-like capabilities of machines increase, robots and AI systems have substantial and growing implications for the law and raise a host of challenges to current legal doctrines. The main question to be answered is whether the foundations and general principles of private law and criminal law offer a functional and adaptive legal framework for the “autonomous systems” phenomena.

The main purpose of this book is to identify and explore possible trajectories for the development of civil and criminal liability; for our understanding of the attribution link to autonomous systems; and, in particular, for the punishment of unlawful conduct in connection with their operation. AI decision-making processes – including judicial sentencing – also warrant close attention in this regard.

Since AI is moving faster than the process of regulatory recalibration, this book provides valuable insights on its redesign and on the harmonization, at the European level, of the current regulatory frameworks, in order to keep pace with technological changes.

Providing a broader and more comprehensive picture of the legal challenges posed by autonomous systems, this book covers a wide range of topics, including the regulation of autonomous vehicles, data protection and governance, personality rights, intellectual property, corporate governance, and contract conclusion and termination issues arising from automated decisions, blockchain technology and AI applications, particularly in the banking and finance sectors.

The authors are legal experts from around the world with extensive academic and/or practical experience in these areas.

Das Thema Familie und unerlaubte Handlung hatte Erik Jayme in seiner großen Habilitation (1971) ins Licht gehoben. Es lebt noch heute, noch intensiver. Unterthemen sind: Gleichbehandlung von Mann und Frau, mehrfach vom BVerfG entschieden, auch für das IPR, für das der Spanier-Beschluss gar zur größten Reformagenda in Zeiten der Bundesrepublik führte; die nichteheliche Lebensgemeinschaft, speziell auch in unternehmerischen Kontexten; in jüngerer Zeit die Großentwicklung um Gleichstellung von Homosexualität und Transgender-Fragen und die große EuGH-Agenda um die EU-Citizenship. All dies ist im globalen Kontext nochmals vielfach potenziert, namentlich in so diversen Ländern wie Brasilien, Deutschland, Portugal oder auch Angola u.a.Mit Beiträgen vonProf. Dr. Tiago Azevedo Ramalho | Prof. Dr. Lisiane Feiten Wingert-Ody | Dr. Vivianne Ferreira | Dr. Lena Kunz | Dr. Rafael Longhi, LL.M. | Prof. Dr. Dário Moura Vicente | Dr. Carl Friedrich Nordmeier | Prof. Dr. Rute Teixeira Pedro