Journal of Law, Market & Innovation

Price personalisation: Walking the not-so-blurried line between innovation and exploitation

2024-04-09T15:15:18+02:00

Blockchain Justice: Exploring Decentralising Dispute Resolution Across Borders

2024-04-09T15:15:17+02:00

It is well known that the raison d'etre of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is to enable peer-to-peer transactions that do not require Trusted Third Parties (TTP). Commercial security is a major concern for users in this new era: intermediaries are increasingly seen as security holes and removed from protocols as a result of a growing desire to maintain control over transactions. The need for independence from TTPs has evolved into a counterculture that moves blockchainers away from central authority, the courts and the world as we know it. To date, all existing online dispute resolution (ODR) processes in DLT and related tools such as smart contracts do not reflect the vision of blockchain as a counterculture. They exclusively use adjudicative methods involving one or more TTPs deciding via on-chain incentivised voting systems. This paper aims to discuss why non-adjudicative methods shall have a cultural priority over adjudicative ones, showing why they might be preferred by blockchainers due to risk management and distrust concerns. Furthermore, we introduce a prototype of a non-adjudicative ODR model (“Aspera”) in which users can have total control
over the outcome of the dispute in a TTP free environment.

The New Frontiers of Trust: Bitcoins and Cryptocurrencies

2024-04-09T15:15:15+02:00

The opportunity offered by digital innovation to create new categories of goods or, at least, to transform what was previously represented by objects into something virtual has inevitably raised the issue of the legal qualification of digital assets, particularly cryptocurrencies. This classification requires a careful delimitation of the phenomenon. First, because not all ‘digital representations of value’ perform the same function and, most importantly, because their legal nature should be harmonised with the need to guarantee exclusive and absolute use by their owner and therefore, with tools that protect the individual’s ownership rights. One fundamental effect of digital assets being qualified as property is that they can be the object of trust. Moreover, it is precisely in this context that, owing to changing economic and social demands, the need to rethink the traditional categories of civil law becomes even more acute.

Disputes from Commercial Space Activities: Potentialities and Hurdles of Investor-State Dispute Settlement

2024-04-09T15:15:13+02:00

Outer space is the “part of the universe which is simultaneously beyond the airspace of planet Earth and accessible to human activity”. The recent decades have seen significant developments in the commercial activities carried out in outer space as well as an increasing diversification in the actors engaging therein. In this context, private investment is on the rise and this trend is expected to continue. With more companies and entrepreneurs exploring opportunities in space exploration, satellite deployment, asteroid mining, space tourism, and other space-related activities, it has become of the utmost importance to establish a consistent legal framework for private actors in outer space. This is even more so considering that their increasing presence in the space industry is likely to result, in the near future, in disputes between said actors and States operating in outer space, the resolution of which needs clarity regarding the applicable mechanisms. Against this backdrop, International Space Law as the “part of existing legal systems on Earth which relates to outer space” does not seem capable of offering, at the state of play, sufficient protection to private investors engaged in space-related activities. On the contrary, International Investment Law has the potential to establish a structured framework for a rule-based system that promotes and maintains private investment flows in outer space. Starting from the above premises, the present work investigates the applicability of International Investment Law to private investments made in the context of commercial space activities and, a fortiori, of Investor State Dispute Settlement, as a dispute settlement mechanism developed within the frame of the above body of law, to conflicts arising in outer space between private investors and States. The purpose is to highlight that not only do investments in outer space fulfil the requirements to be granted international investment protection but also that the rationale behind International Investment Law justifies its extension to encompass such investments.

The New Transatlantic Data Agreement Placed in Context: Decoding the Schrems Saga Within the Digital Economy

2024-04-09T15:15:12+02:00

Any time we use digital services we create data. That data travels around continents, constituting the fundamentals of the digital economy. Begun in 2015, the Agreements that allowed this kind of free flow of data between the EU and the US have been invalidated – the Safe Harbour and the Privacy Shield – bringing uncertainty in the work of over 5300 companies that based their practices on such frameworks which allowed data to move borderless, as well as, threatening the digital rights of European citizens who do not see their data adequately protected across the Atlantic. Indeed, in Data Protection Commission v. Facebook Ireland – Schrems II – the CJEU claimed that US surveillance law offers inadequate safeguards for EU citizens’ data. In the summer of 2023, the transatlantic actor unlocked the gridlock with the new adequacy decision of the EU based on the new Transatlantic Data Privacy Framework, amid debate on the adequacy offered by it. The question of whether the new pact will ensure long-standing data flow between the two sides of the Atlantic remains open. The question is of extreme importance, such data transfers are fundamental to conducting international trade and commerce in today's globally connected world. Therefore, people and businesses can use crossborder data flows to communicate online, map global supply chains, share research, provide cross-border services, and drive technological innovation. The trade and investment relationships between the US and the EU are broad and highly intertwined. The United States and the European Union have the highest cross-border data flows in the world, valued at $7.1 trillion dollars annually, which are critical to much of the economic interaction between the two countries. The article aims to shed light on the problems experienced with the invalidation of the previous two agreements, with an analysis of American surveillance laws and questioning whether the new agreement could be the base for a stable transatlantic digital economy.