With a record-breaking number of participants, the Institute of Legal Informatics enriched the International Legal Informatics Symposium IRIS. From February 25 to 27, legal experts presented current developments and research findings from the field of legal informatics. The focus of the conference was the exchange of information on legal dogmatics, technical, economic, social and philosophical issues of law in the knowledge economy. Members of the Institute gave eight lectures and chaired three working groups.

Professor Georg Borges led the session "Digital Industry 4.0" and presented on the topics of "Liability for Faulty Data in Automated Driving" and "Monday Mail," the latter jointly with Professor Dominik Brodowski. Professor Christoph Sorge moderated the session "Data Protection IV" and gave a presentation under the heading "What (also) lawyers should know about AI: more (artificial) intelligence in legal education".

Several other members of the Institute contributed to the exciting program. Andreas Sesing, managing director of the Institute, presented on the topic of "Legal requirements for the use of AI applications". In the same panel, research associate Robert Hoffmann gave a topic-related presentation on "AI in the employment context." Both highlighted the challenges and opportunities of testing AI applications.

The topic of "Hyperledger Fabric as a Contract Settlement Tool" was explored by Nikolas Hamm, likewise the institute's managing director. His presentation featured an alternative model to the previous large and well-known blockchain applications, which is more adaptable and privacy-friendly. Research associate Marc A. Ostoja-Starzewski presented on the topic of "Fulfillment Effects of Services in the Blockchain-based Industry 4.0 Network" and demonstrated how legal requirements for contract execution can be mapped onto a blockchain in a manner that is in line with the interests of the contracting parties and how the automation of fulfillment actions can succeed by means of on-chain executions of smart contracts.

"Data protection aspects of private blockchains" was the topic of the presentation by research associate Jonas Baumann, who described in detail that a data protection-compliant blockchain can be designed by fulfilling various legal requirements and adapting technical features.

Alongside his colleagues from the TrUSD project, Aljoscha Dietrich gave a presentation on dark patterns and phishing in the employment context, entitled "How I obtained your data". In their presentation under the heading of "On legal boundaries and the actual market situation: the (lack of) regulation of legal tech providers in Germany", Ajla Hajric, Maximilian Leicht, Frederik Möllers and Dr. Stephanie Vogelgesang discussed legal services on the Internet, which are often not offered by lawyers.

Dr. Stephanie Vogelgesang led the session "Security and Law III". In the same session Stefan Hessel and Andreas Rebmann gave a presentation under the heading "IT Security obligations for companies in Germany and outlook on future regulation", in which they advocated the introduction of a management system for the implementation of IT security regulations. Dr. Jochen Krüger, Dr. Stephanie Vogelgesang, Maximilian Leicht and Lena-Marie Adam examined the question of "Criminal justice in times of Corona - crisis management or also digital development aid through the use of video technology?" and investigated to what extent the Corona crisis meant an acceleration of digitalization in the justice system.

Three of the four papers submitted by the Chair of Legal Informatics were recognized as top 10 papers.

In the panel "State Identity Management and Register Modernization Act" chaired by Professor Christoph Sorge, Maximilian Leicht and Frederik Möllers discussed register modernization and criticized the planned introduction of a general personal identification number.

Here you can find the slides of the presentations: