JuWissDay 2024: A promising (out)look on virtual worlds

The advent of the metaverse, which will merge physical and virtual reality, will give rise to a number of new legal questions. The JuWissDay event, scheduled for 27 and 28 September 2024, addressed these issues in depth with a series of engaging keynotes and panels in Speyer.

Virtual worlds are on everyone's lips. The Internet of Tomorrow is expected to transform the way people interact with digital space by combining physical, augmented and virtual reality. This emerging phenomenon, also known as the 'metaverse' (or Web 3 and Web 4.0), is regarded as a significant opportunity by various social and political stakeholders, as well as legislators at the national and EU levels.

Against this background, the JuWissDay took place on 27 and 28 September 2024 at the National Institute for Public Administration Germany (NIPAG) in Speyer. The event, entitled 'Legal issues in virtual worlds', was a great success. The event offered participants the opportunity to benefit from two renowned keynote speakers and seven thematically tailored panels with eleven contributions from young academics. The first keynote, entitled 'Virtual reality in legal practice', was delivered by Prof. Dr Simon Heetkamp, Professor of Business Law, Mobility and Insurance Law at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne (TH Köln) and co-founder of the 'Digital Judiciary'. On Saturday, Prof. Dr Matthias C. Kettemann, LL.M. (Harvard), University Professor for Innovation, Theory and Philosophy of Law at the Institute for Theory and Future of Law at the University of Innsbruck, delivered the second keynote speech, entitled 'The unbearable lightness of what should be: On the possibilities of standards in virtual worlds'. The panel presentations shed light on what really lies behind the hype surrounding the metaverse and, above all, the legal and regulatory issues surrounding it, particularly in terms of how (future) virtual worlds could impact the state and society. The presentations addressed a range of topics, including the 'digital twin', as illustrated by Jaouhara Zouagui from Fraunhofer FOKUS (Berlin), who presented 'A legal investigation into the authentication process' and 'Virtual twins and diabetes: Legal aspects of the diabetes project’ as presented by DrDavid M. Schneeberger, Research Institute – Digital Human Rights Center (Vienna). The conference addressed a number of key issues, including the conflict between risk prevention and data protection and the guarantee of (IT) security.

Not only did the conference bring together all three legal pillars, it also benefited from the exchange with practitioners, in particular several participants from the judiciary and the bar. The proceedings are scheduled to be published by Nomos Verlag in early 2025.