At the BRYTER Center for Digitalization & Law, research projects are conducted that address current issues in the field of digitalization and law. These projects have a legal focus, but also include interdisciplinary aspects and practical experiences. For this purpose, a constant exchange takes place. At the same time, the BRYTER Center promotes dissertations with a topic at the interface of law and technology and provides a legal education and training program in this area.

The research of the BRYTER Center is made up of four pillars:

The first pillar is formed by questions of the governance function of law, in particular public law, for the digitalization and the phenomena associated with it. Other affected legal areas will also be covered. In addition to the legal research methods, approaches from the fields of economics, comparative law and law & economics are applied as well.

Currently, research activities in this area include, in particular

• questions of platform economy and regulation,
• problems of privacy & data protection and communication on the Internet,
• developments in the field of big data and data economy in a European and international context as well as
• challenges in dealing with artificial intelligence (“AI”) and algorithms (e.g. “algorithmic bias” and “political online microtargeting”).

The second pillar is dedicated to the question of how law itself is changing as a result of the digital transformation. Here, the research methods include legal theory and comparative law as well as the “critique of law”.

With the third pillar, the BRYTER Center addresses the impact of the digital transformation on the legal profession. Emphasis lies on the automation of legal work and the impact of the increasing use of technology on the legal market as well as in public administration (“GovTech”) and the judiciary.

Finally, the fourth pillar builds upon the impact that the increasing use of technology in the legal profession. It is changing the way legal professionals work in the long term. Given this background, the Center develops education programs and trainings that can be integrated into the legal education. One of the core tasks of the BRYTER Center is to train students of the law programs at EBS Law School in the field of law and digitalization and to prepare them for the challenges of their professional careers in this area. For this purpose, the Center supports the study program with the specialization in “Law & Digitalization”.

Since we are amidst an ongoing digital transformation with fast-paced developments in all those areas, future
and practice-oriented research requires a constant exchange with academia, legal practice and politics. Therefore, the BRYTER Center supports the “Innovation Talks” of the student-run EBS Legal Innovation Lab, which take place regularly at EBS Law School. In addition, the BRYTER Center also offers its own events; in particular, the Center hosts a conference on current issues in the law of digitalization every two years.

Get in touch: info@bryter.center. More news also via LinkedIn.