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A Common Legal Platform in the Age of Constant Acceleration

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Liquid Legal

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Abstract

The following article deals with the phenomenon of increasing acceleration and its effects on legal advice practice. Digitalization is changing all areas of life, and this with exponentially increasing speed. This requires government institutions, companies and every single person to be able and willing to change at ever shorter intervals. Both the state and many companies and people are having increasing difficulty keeping up with this speed of change. In addition, an unprecedented, ever-growing flood of information, new social fears due to climate change, geopolitical conflicts and declining confidence in democratic institutions are increasingly overburdening the individual. Complexity is becoming more and more difficult to communicate in this environment, and answers are expected ever faster. Legal advisors who want to remain successful in this environment must rethink the core of their advisory services. In order to remain relevant for their clients, they will have to provide advice much faster, less complex and more comprehensible, and better tailored to individual client needs. There is no patent recipe for this. However, a Common Legal Platform could help to master these challenges.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Heine (1893), p. 368.

  2. 2.

    Ambrogi (26 Dec 2018). There have been tendencies in that regard already for years though, cf. on types of legal platforms Küng (2019), pp. 133 et seq.

  3. 3.

    Porter (1996), p. 3.

  4. 4.

    Susskind (2013), Chapter 16.

  5. 5.

    Bandey and Kupsch (2018), passim; Bandey and Kupsch (2019), passim.

  6. 6.

    Virilio was one of the most influential contemporary French philosopher. Based on his famous book Speed and Politics (first published in France in 1977) he later describes in Negative Horizon: An Essay in Dromoscopy (first published in 1984) the disturbance of global democracy as an eventual logic consequence of this development.

  7. 7.

    See the graph at Friedman (2016), p. 34. Apparently, Eric “Astro” Teller, CEO of Alphabet’s X research and development lab, was the creator of this graph and sponsored it to Friedman, cf. Friedman (2016), p. 28.

  8. 8.

    Friedman (2016), p. 37.

  9. 9.

    See Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2015), pp. 40 et seq. Gordon Moore was the co-founder of Intel and included his famous forecast in an article that he wrote for Electronics magazine in 1965.

  10. 10.

    Astro Teller argues that increasing adaptability is 90% about “optimizing for learning”—applying features that drive technological innovation to our culture and social structures. He himself draws the logical conclusion from his analysis that increasing adaptability would be the only way forward for humans to catch-up with the speed of technological progress, see Friedman (2016), pp. 33 et. seq.

  11. 11.

    Harari (2018), Lesson 1, “Disillusionment”, Subchapter “From killing mosquitoes to killing thoughts”; Boehme-Neßler (2017), p. 3033. Symptomatic for that development is the legendary quote of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who referred still in June 2013 to the internet as “virgin territory for us all”, see e.g. Telegraph.co.uk as of 20 June 2013, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10133039/Angela-Merkel-refers-to-internet-as-virgin-territory.html. Assessed on July 30, 2019.

  12. 12.

    Which is a law that attempts to interfere with possible hate speech content, see Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (“Network Enforcement Act”, more commonly also known as “Facebook Act”), Deutscher Bundesrat-Drucksachen [BR-Drs.] 536/17 (June 30, 2017). An English copy is available under https://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Gesetzgebungsverfahren/Dokumente/NetzDG_engl.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2 (Assessed on July 31, 2019).

  13. 13.

    See in Germany for instance the recent decision of the Regional Court of Munich I in the matter of, LG München I, April 29, 2019—4 HK O 14312/18 (“Cathy Hummels”), juris.

  14. 14.

    See Grup and Krispenz (2019), about the influence of digitalization on the M&A business.

  15. 15.

    See e.g. Ft.com as of May 27, 2019, “Regulate facial recognition technology before it is too late”. https://www.ft.com/content/8788812e-8052-11e9-9935-ad75bb96c849. Assessed on July 29, 2019. Iapp.org as of January 29, 2019, “How should we regulate facial-recognition technology?”. https://iapp.org/news/a/how-should-we-regulate-facial-recognition-technology/. Assessed on July 26, 2019.

  16. 16.

    See Cointelegraph.com, “Huawei CEO: Why Wait for Facebook? China Can Issue Its Own ‘Libra’”, https://cointelegraph.com/news/huawei-ceo-why-wait-for-facebook-china-can-issue-its-own-libra. Assessed on July 26, 2019.

  17. 17.

    Friedman (2016), p. 32.

  18. 18.

    Bandey and Kupsch (2018), p. 8; Bandey and Kupsch (2019), pp. 173 et seq.

  19. 19.

    See e.g. LTO.de as of Jan 2, 2019, https://www.lto.de/recht/justiz/j/justiz-belastung-personal-mangel-nachwuchs-pensionierung/. Assessed on Aug 1, 2019.

  20. 20.

    See e.g. Mdr.de as of Apr 30, 2019, “Justiz in Not” (“Justice in Need”), https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/politik/gesellschaft/justiz-richter-mangel-und-verfahrenseinstellungen-100.html. Assessed on Aug 1, 2019.

  21. 21.

    Cf. Ludivine and Raphaël (2018), pp. 2 et seq. A spontaneous test search of the term “judiciary and courts have been overburdened” via Google discovers comprehensive media coverage on this problem in the United Stated, in UK, in India and many other states Assessed on Aug 1, 2019.

  22. 22.

    Spiegel.de as of July 21, 2016 “Die Klage-Ebbe” (“The Court-Action ebb”). https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/justiz-warum-klagen-die-deutschen-immer-weniger-a-1081709.html. Beck.de, http://presse.beck.de/beckextra-das-magazin/flaute-am-rechtsstandort-deutschland-was-sind-die-gruende.aspx. Both links assessed on Aug 1, 2019.

  23. 23.

    Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat—Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik 2018 (Official statistic of the German Ministry of Internal Affairs), p. 26, available at https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/downloads/DE/publikationen/themen/sicherheit/pks-2018.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3. Assessed on Aug 1, 2019.

  24. 24.

    See e.g. Spiegel.de as of June 12, 2018, https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/bka-wirtschaftskriminalitaet-auf-hoechstem-stand-seit-fuenf-jahren-a-1212489.html (Assessed on Aug 1, 2019).

  25. 25.

    PwC (2018), p. 20.

  26. 26.

    Kilian (2017), p. 3044 et seq.

  27. 27.

    LTO.de as of Jan 3, 2018, “Justiz verliert 10.000 Richter und Staatsanwälte”, https://www.lto.de/recht/justiz/j/drb-warnung-justiz-gerichte-richter-staatsanwaelte-personalmangel-pensionierungen/. Assessed on Aug 2, 2019.

  28. 28.

    See Boehme-Neßler (2017), pp. 3036 et seq. See also Spiegel.de as of July 21, 2016 “Die Klage-Ebbe” (“The Court-Action ebb”). https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/justiz-warum-klagen-die-deutschen-immer-weniger-a-1081709.html. Assessed on Aug 1, 2019.

  29. 29.

    See FAQs on the official European Patent Office’s-Website https://www.epo.org/service-support/faq/own-file.html. Assessed on Aug 1, 2019.

  30. 30.

    Adolphsen (2017), pp. 147 et seq. Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms have always existed and the legal system can easily cope with them to some extent. Strictly speaking, however, state law plays a minor or no role in many ADR procedures. If those seeking justice increasingly opt for such procedures, this inevitably has an impact on the importance of the legal order. See also Risse (2003), pp. 517 et seq on the discussion about the negative impact that a growing number of mediation proceedings might have on state law.

  31. 31.

    Adolphsen (2017), pp. 149 et seq.

  32. 32.

    The two authors have taken over the idea of the increasing overstrain of people from the book of the same name by Gabor Steingart (2016). However, he is by far not the only one who draws that conclusion, see e.g. also Harari (2018), Ch. 1 et seq., similarly Friedman (2016), pp. 3 et seq.

  33. 33.

    Steingart (2016), pp. 70 et seq.

  34. 34.

    Steingart (2016), pp. 146 et seq. See also Harari (2018), Lesson 2, “Work”, Subchapter “From exploitation to irrelevance”, who likewise fears the emergence of a “useless” class, people who become irrelevant for society because they are neither intellectually nor mentally able to adapt to the needs of a digitized society and would therefore irreversibly fall behind. There is an increasing public debate about how the resulting social crash of many people can be stopped, see e.g. https://www.focus.de/digital/dldaily/new-work/oxford-arbeitsforscher-carl-benedikt-frey-angst-um-den-job-experte-erklaert-wie-wir-digitalisierungsverlierer-auffangen-koennen_id_11239392.html. Assessed on October 18, 2019.

  35. 35.

    Harari (2018), Ch. 2 “Work”, Subchapter “New Jobs?” speaks of a global stress epidemic that has come over us through the hectic world of the early twenty-first century.

  36. 36.

    VUCA relates to “Volatility”, “Uncertainty”, “Complexity” and “Ambiguity”.

  37. 37.

    Assessed on July 17, 2019.

  38. 38.

    An English version is available at https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_rdg/englisch_rdg.html. Assessed on July 17, 2019.

  39. 39.

    Act No. 39 of 1987.

  40. 40.

    See Australian Competition & Consumer Commission v Murray [2002] FCA 1252, 94.

  41. 41.

    Eley v. Miller 7 Ind. App. 529 (Ind. Ct. App. 1893), 535.

  42. 42.

    Which excludes by the way most non-lawyers from providing legal advice, a fact, that has frequently been criticized around the world, see for Germany e.g. Henke (2006), pp. 119 et seq. There are of course some exceptions from that rule in many jurisdictions, see for instance section 5 RDG, that allows legal services that are provided in connection with another activity if they represent a service which is ancillary to a profession or activity.

  43. 43.

    Cf. Weil (2006), p. 639. This is crucial importance for the rule of law and democracy also justifies restrictions in competition within the legal market, see ECJ, Case C-309/99 (“Wouters”), Judgment as of February 19, 2002, http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=46722&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1, Assessed on October 19, 2002.

  44. 44.

    Susskind (2013), Chapter 16.

  45. 45.

    This applies regardless of the fact that, in most jurisdictions, the lawyer is first and foremost obliged (and liable) to his client, which in the case of a company is the legal person.

  46. 46.

    Altman Weil (2017), p. 38.

  47. 47.

    Altman Weil (2017), p. 45. On a scale from 1 (no understanding) to 10 (sophisticated understanding), the average was 6.1.

  48. 48.

    Please note that serves as technological observations. The authors of this article are by no means promoting the idea of such Robo Lawyers.

  49. 49.

    See Friedman (2016), p. 35.

  50. 50.

    See § 2 (1) Statutes of the Liquid Legal Institute e.V.

  51. 51.

    See § 2 (2) Statutes of the Liquid Legal Institute e.V.

  52. 52.

    See Jacob (2017), p. 17.

  53. 53.

    See also the “Common Platform Enumeration”, which creates an industry standard for uniform naming conventions for software packages, among others, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Platform_Enumeration. Assessed on Oct 19, 2019.

  54. 54.

    Susskind (2013), Chapter 4.

  55. 55.

    Just look at FlightRight, MyRight et al.

  56. 56.

    See, for example, the initiative of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, which has failed for the time being Lto.de as of Mai 1, 2019, https://www.lto.de/recht/zukunft-digitales/l/fdp-gesetzentwurf-legal-tech-rechtsdienstleistungsrecht-modernisierung-kommentar/. Assessed on Oct 19, 2019.

  57. 57.

    For example, in the recent decision of the High Court of Cologne as of Oct 8, 2019, allowance to practice was denied for a contract generating tool provided by the legal tech start-up Smartlaw, see Lto.de as of Oct 10, 2019, https://www.lto.de/recht/juristen/b/lg-koeln-urteil-33o3519-smartlaw-vertragsgenerator-legal-tech-modell-verboten-rdg/. On November 27, 2019, the German Federal Supreme Court (case no: VIII ZR 285/18) allowed the business model of LexFox. LexFox is a legal tech start-up that allows customers free of charge a check whether their landlords claim too much rent from them, Lto.de as of Nov 27, 2019, https://www.lto.de/recht/juristen/b/bgh-viii-zr-285-18-legal-tech-wenigermiete-de-inkassodienstleistung-weite-auslegung-abtretung-wirksam-rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz/. Both websites assessed on Nov 27, 2019.

  58. 58.

    Cf. Boehme-Neßler (2017), p. 3035.

  59. 59.

    See on this highly interesting topic of dynamic regulation Revolidis and Dahi (2018).

  60. 60.

    Revolidis and Dahi (2018), Par. 3.1 “Regulatory Sandboxes”.

  61. 61.

    Cf. on this concept already Bandey and Kupsch (2018), p. 8; Bandey and Kupsch (2019), p. 173 et seq.

  62. 62.

    See https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome. Assessed on Oct 20, 2019.

  63. 63.

    See https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers/solving-disputes/european-small-claims-procedure/index_en.htm#shortcut-2. Assessed on Oct 20, 2019.

  64. 64.

    See Wired.com as of March 25, 2019, “Can AI Be a Fair Judge in Court?”, https://www.wired.com/story/can-ai-be-fair-judge-court-estonia-thinks-so/. Assessed on Oct 20, 2019.

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  1. PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Frankfurt, Germany

    Uwe Bandey & Silvio Kupsch

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  1. Uwe Bandey
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    Kai Jacob

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    Dierk Schindler

  3. Dr. Strathausen Consultancy, Sevilla, Spain

    Roger Strathausen

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Bandey, U., Kupsch, S. (2020). A Common Legal Platform in the Age of Constant Acceleration. In: Jacob, K., Schindler, D., Strathausen, R. (eds) Liquid Legal. Law for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48266-4_15

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