Dear Readers,
In honouring the scholar, ministerial administrator, and «magician» Friedrich Lachmayer, a «festschrift» entitled «Zeichen und Zauber des Rechts» has been published on the occasion of his 70th birthday in June 2013. These unusual job titles meet best the versatile work of Professor Dr. Friedrich Lachmayer, retired Divisional Manager of the Legal Service of the Federal Chancellery in Vienna: not «only» a lawyer, but also a philosopher, theorist, logician; not «only» a university docent at the Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna, but also a long and successful administrative lawyer in the legal service of the Austrian Federal Chancellery; in addition to that an energetic provider and promoter of scientific platforms, such as the International Legal Informatics Symposium IRIS.
89 authors from the social network of Friedrich Lachmayer hat spent time and energy for the many sciences he was and is engaged and committed. An important, interdisciplinary work on the future development of law in the knowledge society has been created, with Friedrich Lachmayer in the centre. Lachmayer wanted and wants to build bridges, remove disciplinary barriers, and enlarge the horizon. His particular concern is it the bridge between technology and logic as well as law and language. «Festschriften» have the important task to position the work of the honouree in the context of the respective sciences. In the case of Lachmayer, there are very different sciences, but they share significant similarities. It requires people, such as Friedrich Lachmayer who take it upon themselves to take over the task of bridge building and to raise the scientific discourse to a creative level. This edition reflects his important and fertilizing work for more than 40 years.
The electronic edition of this comprehensive «festschrift» was enlarged with the contributions of Hajime Yoshino and Erich Schweighofer; the contribution of Hanna Maria Kreuzbauer will probably be published in December 2014. This edition is divided as the Festschrift in the following areas:
- Legal Theory
- Legal Informatics
- Legislative Processes
- Informatics in Public Administration, E-Justice & E-Government
- Law in Legal Practice
- Visualization of Law
- Semiotics
Jusletter IT is a platform of modern discourse. Friedrich Lachmayer was therefore given the opportunity to publish his reflections on the respective contributions. We are very pleased that the honouree has done this, in a typical form for him: using visualizations.
In the new category «Visualization of Law» at Jusletter IT, presentations, videos, and podcasts of Friedrich Lachmayer, Harald Hoffmann and Vytautas Cyras were published, but this is only the beginning. The respective works are linked with previously published articles in Jusletter IT. Thus, written contributions can be also understood as a sound or visual piece.
We also want to take this opportunity to point to our online survey «How do you see the future of the WWW». We thank all those who have expressed their opinions regarding privacy and data security with respect to the NSA scandal.
Also in this issue, you find the category «TechLawNews» by attorneys Daniel Ronzani and Simon Schlauri with news of the sector IT and law.
We wish you an exciting and informative reading and are looking forward to welcome you again with the next issue of Jusletter IT on 11 December 2014.