Digitalization is the megatrend of the early 21st century. Historically, much of digital innovation has originated in clusters around major US universities, most notably in Silicon Valley. Consequently, US internet law and policy had outsized influence and global impact. Yet, in current changing times, the emerging ‘digital law‘ will likely look more amorphous. This first...
EU-Japan Perspectives on Law in the Digital Era
Japan has recently signed a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU, the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement or JEEPA. JEEPA made some tentative steps towards addressing the digital transformation, yet refrained from the US promoted (and then abandoned) model of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which enshrined protections for free data flows and against data localization...
Regulation without Law? Perspectives from China on International Regulations Governing Infringement Disputes
By analyzing Wechat platform‘s and its users‘ behaviors, this paper assesses the effectiveness of internet governance, especially the informal forms of regulations, and the influence of such behaviors on the practice of different stakeholders involved. This research might be of help to standardize informal social regulations in China‘s IT industry, and build an orderly and...
The EU as Global Digital Rule-Maker
The EU has established itself as a leading actor in the field of data protection and privacy with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entering into effect in spring 2018, replacing the outdated 1995 Data Protection Directive, and enshrining the protection of “European data subjects“ everywhere. Further legislation, on e-privacy and trade secrets protection, aspires...
The Chinese Conception of Cyber Sovereignty and its Practical Effect
This paper will unpack the conception of “cyber sovereignty“ put forward by the Chinese authorities from both ideational and institutional perspectives. It will first trace out the evolution of Chinese authorities‘ understandings of the Internet in the past 20 years and put the recent conception of “cyber sovereignty“ in the historical context. Then it will...