Jean Monnet Chair of Economic Analysis of European Law

Share List The article investigates the complex relationship between academic experts and the political sphere, highlighting how scientific policy advice is often hindered by a lack of empirical consensus and a prevailing reproduction crisis in research. Moving beyond the ideal of objective guidance, the authors apply an economic lens to reveal that both politicians and advisors are frequently driven by self-interest, seeking to maximize their own power, prestige, and income rather than serving the public good. The text argues that…

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Share List Developing a harm-based approach to understand digital vulnerability in the era of AI: a perspective of the European Union The European Union has introduced the AI Act, aimed at establishing a comprehensive framework for regulating AI systems according to the level of risk they pose. This podcast focuses on the ex post dimension of digital vulnerability, identifying four obstacles that hinder individuals from seeking remedies through tort liability: the difficulty in identifying harm, the presence of pure economic…

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Share List What Do Privacy Scholars Maximize? – Law as a Practice and Law as a Science. Ignacio Cofone’s book “The Privacy Fallacy” is the starting point for a methodological discussion about how the notion of privacy is approached by law. It is distinguished between law as a practice and law as science. The first is a technique of conflict resolution, while the latter derives empirically testable hypotheses from a theory. In “The Privacy Fallacy” we find both. Epistemological problems…

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Share List Autonomous Decision-Making as a Challenge for Legal Research. To get a better understanding of the fundamental problem that economic analysis of law has with autonomous decision-making, different routes for solving the problem are scrutinized. The analysis shows that the toolbox of Law and Economics does not yet provide a clear answer. Doctrinal law can also give no conclusive answers. Instead, this contribution proposes taking a closer look into legal history. The recourse to legal history can neither replace…

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Share List Case C-307/22 – The GDPR Fine Line Between Access and Abuse. The GDPR has shaken up the world for both businesses and consumers. New rights and obligations have emerged, and many revolve around various data protection requests. The recent case C-307/22 was analysed by Larisa Munteanu in a brief study that highlights how inconsistency may arise from attempted consistency, at EU level:  Can “abusive requests” be both the genre and the species in certain circumstances? Should more guidelines…

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Share List What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor? Product Safety in the Aftermath of 3D Printing. 3D-printing aligns the digital and the material world. It questions the necessity of large scale production facilities for producing homogenous cheap products. It also questions the distinction between producer and consumer. This has very tangible repercussions for attributing liability. The podcast is guided by the paper ‘What shall we do with the drunken sailor? Product safety in the aftermath of 3D printing’…

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Share List Lobbying and social media: science communication as a case study. Social media has profoundly changed the communication between scientists and the public. Social media allows scientists to instantly communicate their sometimes not peer-reviewed research results to a wide audience. This gives scientists the chance to get political influence, although the research results are possibly wrong. What are the motives and interests of scientists being engaged on social media with their research ideas and opinions? This trend will be explored…

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Share List Liability of Artificial Intelligence Systems – or: In Search of Lost Time. AI causes accountability gaps, but there is not yet a methodological toolkit to close those gaps. What are the problems of the contemporary methods? A distinction is made between law as practice and law as science. Legal history is proposed as a source of inspiration for today’s legal problems of AI. The discussion is guided by an academic chapter called “Liability of artifical intelligence systems –…

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Share List Bridging the accountability gap of artificial intelligence – What can be learned from Roman law? AI creates new problems for the attribution of responsibility. The incumbent law is not yet ready to close those gaps of responsibility. The look back into Roman Law might be helpful to get an idea of how the past dealt with autonomous agents and liability. Especially, how the Romans integrated slaves as decision making agents in their business transactions, is worth getting deeper…

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Share List What can epistemology and moral philosophy teach law? This podcast asks on the most basic level, what the legal options are for giving AI legal status. This means a rigorous analysis of the relation between human and non-human decision makers. The podcast involves the question of consciousness, the meaning of legal personhood and a discussion of contractarian approaches. Only a good knowledge of these issues lays the fundament for legal reasoning of AI. This episode discusses the chapter “Human…

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