Personal Data in Insolvency Proceedings: The Interface between the New General Data Protection Regulation and (German) Insolvency Law

This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.When the General Data Protection Regulation (henceforth: GDPR) came into force, it quickly became clear that the new data protection law would strongly influence many different areas of law. This article deals with the relationship between data protection law and insolvency law, which was hardly considered before the GDPR was adopted. This relationship is particularly relevant where personal data is to be sold as asset in insolvency proceedings. As will be shown, the new data protection law imposes requirements on such data transfers which are very difficult to fulfil. The main problem is that in German law, personal data is not transferable because it is considered part of a subject’s personality. This situation is comparable to German copyright law, since the copyright itself is a non-transferable good. However, just as usage rights in copyright, the rights to use the personal data can be transferred to a third party provided that the requirements of the GDPR are satisfied. This article will comprehensively analyse under which conditions a transfer of such rights would be possible in insolvency proceedings. To create a balanced relationship between data protection law and insolvency law, the principle of proportionality is of crucial importance in this respect.Peer Reviewe

Verkehrsfähigkeit digitaler Güter

Tangible goods lose ground to intangible content. This raises a lot of legal questions: How to design contracts concerning digital content? Is anybody legally liable to provide updates? What about the principle of neutrality of platforms or protection of technological measures and rights-management information? The most controversial issue, however, is whether digital goods are marketable or whether it is possible to limit the free circulation of these goods by technical or contractual means. The question of free circulation of digital goods is a cornerstone within the development of a Law of Digital Goods itself. Accordingly, a conference in Basel on 9 October 2015 was dedicated to discuss this topic from an economic, historical, doctrinal and last but not least political perspective. All presentations are published in this volume. The contributions underline the increasing significance of contract law. However, convincing arguments regarding tangible goods are not necessarily convincing in the digital context. Developing a Law of Digital Goods is a major future challenge for lawyers

Rashba spin-orbit coupling in the square lattice Hubbard model: A truncated-unity functional renormalization group study

The Rashba-Hubbard model on the square lattice is the paradigmatic case for studying the effect of spin-orbit coupling, which breaks spin and inversion symmetry, in a correlated electron system. We employ a truncated-unity variant of the functional renormalization group which allows us to analyze magnetic and superconducting instabilities on equal footing. We derive phase diagrams depending on the strengths of Rasbha spin-orbit coupling, real second-neighbor hopping and electron filling. We find commensurate and incommensurate magnetic phases which compete with d-wave superconductivity. Due to the breaking of inversion symmetry, singlet and triplet components mix; we quantify the mixing of d-wave singlet pairing with f-wave triplet pairing.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Intellectual Property. Using distributed ledger technology to protect, license and enforce intellectual property rights

For several years, almost everyone has been talking about blockchain. The underlying distributed ledger technology has become (in)famous as the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. But what about blockchain and intellectual property like patents and copyright? Could this technology be used for the protection and enforcement of such rights? Which role can smart contracts play in this regard? This article focuses on questions concerning the requirements for provingthe protection of technical inventions as well as on the administration and exploitation of intellectual property rights. The latter could play an important rolefor intellectual property, which has not been registered or is not subject to registration, such as copyright. For trade secrets, a blockchain could be a useful tool for providing appropriate confidentiality measures. Last but not least, smart contracts in particular could be involved in connection with the transfer and, even more importantly, the licensing of intellectual property and mainly of software