Das Institut für Digitalisierung
The Institute for Digitalization
The University of Cologne is home to one of the largest law faculties. The public law department of the Institute for Digitalization (Prof. Dr. Indra Spiecker) sees itself in the tradition of the Data Protection Research Centre founded by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult Spiros Simitis and continued by Prof. Dr. Indra Spiecker and deals with all legal issues raised by digital developments. This includes, for example, projects in the areas of data protection law, information law, IT security and shaping the information society. The regulation of social media, artificial intelligence, digital constitutionalism, EHDS and the enforcement of legal norms are current research topics.
The private law department of the Institute for Digitalization (Prof. Dr. Christian Heinze) works on the legal issues that digitalization raises for relationships between private individuals and companies. These include questions of contract and liability law in the digital context, intellectual property and competition law. There is also a focus on the law of artificial intelligence.
Both departments work closely with each other and with other institutions and subjects, as the challenges of digitalization can no longer be adequately addressed in a disciplinary manner or within the pillars of law alone.
At the Institute, there are opportunities to work as student and research assistants and doctoral candidates, to carry out joint academic and advisory projects and to host visiting scholars from Germany and abroad. The Institute for Digitization regularly organizes events; you are welcome to contact the secretariat of the managing director Prof. Dr. Indra Spiecker (sekretariat-spiecker@uni-koeln.de) to be put on the mailing list for announcements.
The pages of the institute can be found here.
Grand opening of the Institute for Digitalization
On 5 June 2025, the Institute for Digitalization, founded at the Faculty of Law at the University of Cologne, was ceremoniously opened with an academic "heavyweight". To kick off the event, the Rector of the University, Joybrato Mukherjee, and the Minister of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Benjamin Limbach, welcomed the guests in the packed library of the Academy for European Human Rights Protection. Framed by speeches from the Institute's management, the specialist programme offered four different perspectives on digitization, which exemplified the breadth and depth of the Institute's planned research activities.
In her introductory remarks, the Managing Director, Indra Spiecker gen. Döhmann, presented the goals of the institute, which will address the many legal issues raised by digital developments. The aim is to conduct interdisciplinary, informed and practically relevant research in which the various legal disciplines work closely together. The Institute's research programme includes, for example, the functioning and possible applications, but also the limits of AI, data protection, the digitalization of administration, IT security, the enforcement of digital laws as well as industrial property rights and intellectual property. Students at the University of Cologne will be actively involved, particularly through the focus area on the law of digitalization and the corresponding Master's degree course. Finally, the institute will also provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, both in the region and beyond, in Europe and globally.
Thomas von Danwitz, Vice-President of the ECJ, took the perspective of EU law in his keynote speech. He began by discussing the role and responsibility of the ECJ in interpreting the constantly evolving digital legal framework. To this end, he referred to fundamental questions of digitalization that have not yet been conclusively dealt with scientifically, such as the anonymity and exemption from liability of service providers on the internet or the safeguarding of the value and dignity of human beings in times of AI. Paul Schwartz, University of California, Berkeley, gave a perspective on data protection in an international comparison. He highlighted the threat to data protection posed by the work of the current US government. Nevertheless, there is hope, he said, because although US data protection law is fundamentally different and weaker than its European counterpart, it still exists as a living legal matter and is capable of development. After a musical intermezzo, Matthias Leistner, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, outlined a research programme on digitalization from the perspective of intellectual property law. This must serve new functions if, in times of generative AI, there can no longer be talk of a scarcity of creative goods. For example, a (re)orientation of intellectual property law towards securing free spaces for the expression of human creativity and towards market design in the sense of structuring innovation management should be considered. Martina Angela Sasse, Ruhr University Bochum, concluded with her perspective on interdisciplinarity and IT security. She emphasized that legal digitalization research must keep an eye on the relationship between risk, security and responsibility, especially from a technical and social science perspective. When it comes to IT security, an unjustified shift of responsibility to company employees and consumers can currently be observed. There are also considerable deficits in official communication about IT security.
In his concluding remarks, Heinze followed on from the presentations. He first emphasized the importance of EU law for digital regulation, but also referred to challenges, particularly with regard to the numerous new digital acts of recent years (Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, Data Act, AI Act, etc.). He then emphasized the importance of interdisciplinarity for digitalization law. Legal concepts must always be measured against technological findings, technical progress and the terminology of other disciplines. Finally, Heinze thanked all those involved, especially the speakers, whose ideas the Institute will integrate into its research agenda. Spiecker and he wanted to work together with all those interested in digitalization to make the Institute a focal point for (legal) digitalization research.
After the end of the program, the event came to a lively close in the foyer of the Academy. The University of Cologne will soon offer opportunities for further professional exchange: from September 10 to 13, 2025, the 26th DSRI Autumn Academy will take place here, probably the largest conference for young researchers in IT law. On November 21, 2025, the Institute is organizing a theme day on AI and innovation in cooperation with ECONtribute.
You are welcome to contact us atsekretariat-spiecker(at)uni-koeln(dot)de if you would like to be added to our mailing list to receive information about the Institute's activities. Your data will only be used for this purpose and will not be passed on.