Some of us watched this week’s most important soccer match in the department. It didn’t go too well for the Austrians, unfortunately. But we have (former) department employees from every single one of the eight remaining nations. So, finally, at least one department affiliate will celebrate on July 14th.
NSFW (Nikolaus Song For the Week)
This week’s song is from a band called Von Wegen Lisbeth and deals with many of us.
It’s also on YouTube.
They have a very nice song about Elon Musk and this nice little episode (which is, presumably, a masterpiece in social marketing starting on Reddit).
as well.
Studio version is on Spotify
Teaching Award
Iris Eisenberger, Annemarie Hofer (and me) received a teaching reward for the course “Legal Design Sprint”.
I am very honoured to play a minor role in this very interesting concept. The course is very much supported by Arbeiterkammer that has also a quite extensive report on the project.
I reported on this course in Weekly 23/2024 already.
We were not the only ones from the department receiving a price, Christiane Wendehorst got the students’ award for the professor with the best exam preparation.
#iurserious
I discussed the non-reform of German law studies and the cortresponding hashtag #iurserious in an #arsboni episode with representatives of iurreform.
I was rather astonished about some of the obvious methodological flaws in the design of the study that serves as main argument that nothing has to change.
Cookies and AI
OE1 Abendjournal had a short story on the replacement of cookies as key targeting technology and I was interviewed for this. Some of the technological background for/from Google can be found on Google’s own website, and here is something on the AI-implications - and here as well.
Prospect
#arsboni
On Friday, we will discuss legal education once again.
Two sessions will deal with the proposed reform of Austria’s Code on Criminal Procedure and the seizure of mobile phones.
The proposal was very heavily criticised, the parliamentary decision on the draft was postponed until autumn.
We will discuss the reform with the authorts of two of the most nuanced statements on the issue: on Wednesday at 17.00 CET with Elena Haslinger, President of the Austrian Public Prosecutors’ Association.
Prof. Dr. Richard Soyer who was the attorney in the case leading to the annulation of the existing rules by Austria’s Constitutional Court and co-author of a very fundamental critique of the current draft is our guest on Thursday at 17.00 CET - together with his colleague Philip Marsch.
Limited Traffic in Vienna’s City Center
Like in many other cities, Vienna has been trying to limit car traffic in its city center. The project “Verkehrsberuhigte Innere Stadt” has, however, seen very significant delays - mainly for legal reasons as a reform of the federal law on street traffic (“Straßenverkehrsordnung”) would be needed.
As I wrote a rather extensive legal opinion on the matter (together with Dr. Žiga Škorjanc) and suggested the precise wording of such a reform exactly two years ago,
the Executive City Councillor for Innovation, Urban Planning and Mobility, Ulli Simma, together with the district manager of Vienna’s City Center, Markus Figl will give a press conference on Monday morning. I will join the event on the panel. It will be interesting to see whether it will - finally - be possible to convince Federal Minister leonore Gewessler (against other voices heard) that such a reform is needed and would be legally possible.
NIS2-Implementation failed
The draft law on the implementation of the NIS2-Directive 2022/2555 (“Netz- und Informationssystemsicherheitsgesetz 2024”) failed in the Parliament on Thursday as it did not get the necessary 2/3 majority. None of the opposition parties agreed with the government on the draft. This is very unfortunate as Austria will almost certainly fail to transpose this fundamental piec of EU-IT-security legislation into national law.
I gave a short interview for profil on the matter that will (possibly) be published next week. The speeches delivered by the members of Parliament are interesting to watch.
Daisy
enjoys the last days before the grain is harvested.
© Birgit Forgó-Feldner
Have a wonderful week!
Kind regards
Nikolaus (Forgó)