Conflicts of laws (viz. legal contradictions between different national legal regimes) are not a new phenomenon, but they are becoming a particularly crucial issue in the age of global digital communities and services. In the realm of international data governance, the US Cloud Act and the European E-Evidence-Proposal serve as striking examples: The legal regime created via these new frameworks will be substantially shaped by the interplay between state data access competences with extraterritorial reach on one hand, and blocking statutes, aiming at preventing such access, on the other hand. The resulting “Clash of Codes” in this case is not accidental, but politically intended. This raises the question how to resolve such manufactured conflicts.
The decade-old “international comity” doctrine aims to provide a legal recourse to resolve such conflicts of law. However, comity remains a rather general and vague principle and is often “poorly understood” (William S. Dodge). Moreover, from the perspective of an affected institution, it provides insufficient legal certainty to effectively render a solution.
Against the background of the US Cloud Act and the European E-Evidence proposal, the proposed workshop will discuss possible ways to resolve internationals conflicts of laws. Can an advanced comity doctrine serve as an answer? Or will political solutions in the form of new treaties or even supranational legal frameworks be necessary?
Speakers:
- Prof. Jennifer Daskal, Associate Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law & Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Alexandra Jour-Schroeder, Deputy Director-General, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission
- Sofía Jaramillo Otoya, Legal Advisor to UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Digital Rights Fellow, University of California Irvine
- Ulrich Kelber, German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information
Moderation:
- Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó, Professor of IT and IP Law, Head of the Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law, University of Vienna
