For individuals to understand judicial decisions and for trust in the legal system to be maintained, court rulings must be based on clear and persuasive reasoning. Given that human decision-making does not always meet this standard, this article examines to what extent the use of so-called robot judges might affect the comprehensibility of judicial decisions. Based on an analysis of academic literature and current fields of application, the study finds that artificial intelligence can play a supportive role in judicial decision-making. However, it is not yet sufficiently mature to serve as a (assistant) judge.

The Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence is the first legally binding international instrument aimed at safeguarding human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in the context of AI. Switzerland has signed the Convention and is pursuing a minimal implementation approach. This contribution provides a legal assessment of the envisaged ratification strategy and offers a critical evaluation thereof. It shows that, while the chosen minimalist approach is politically feasible and likely to gain broad support, it largely excludes the private sector from its scope and underestimates key technical and implementation challenges.

Integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) into legal research necessitates a transition from probabilistic text generation to deterministic search queries. To this end, this article conceptualizes a federated Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. By interfacing with Fedlex, Entscheidsuche.ch, and LexFind via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), this approach mitigates LLM hallucinations while enhancing the traceability of generated outputs. Furthermore, the contribution explores the interoperability challenges inherent in Swiss federalism and delineates a business model that empowers legal content providers to monetize their proprietary data in the era of agentic AI.

Public notarisation constitutes the most stringent formal requirement under Swiss private law and is still predominantly carried out in an analogue manner. This contribution outlines its fundamental principles and identifies the two key steps required to enable fully digital notarisation: the issuance of electronic original deeds and the admissibility of remote notarisation. It further examines the extent to which these two developments are compatible with the underlying purpose and formal requirements of public notarisation under Swiss law.

Generative artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the legal profession. This contribution examines whether, in the shadow of these developments, a “knowledge gap of tomorrow” may emerge: might future lawyers face competence deficits because AI systems increasingly take over early-stage learning tasks that have traditionally been essential for developing legal judgment? Based on semi-structured expert interviews with Swiss commercial law firms and law faculties, as well as relevant international literature, the article shows that the primary risk does not lie in the disappearance of tasks, but rather in a changing culture of knowledge acquisition and use. If key learning processes are prematurely delegated to artificial intelligence, core legal competencies may already be weakened during legal education. Swiss universities therefore bear a particular responsibility to foster both technological literacy and traditional foundational legal skills to an equal extent.

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming professional football: automated player evaluation systems, such as those developed by Olocip, enable data-driven scouting and transfer decisions. Using the cooperation between FC St. Gallen and Olocip as a case study, this article examines the data protection requirements under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) for the lawful use of such systems. The analysis focuses in particular on the qualification as high-risk profiling pursuant to Art. 5 lit. g FADP, the requirements for justification and consent, and the obligation to conduct a data protection impact assessment. It demonstrates that a data protection-compliant deployment is feasible, but requires continuous risk management and, in the case of health data, explicit consent.

This article examines the impact of LegalTech on legal practice in the B2B sector, with a particular focus on law firms. It analyses key applications such as legal research, automated document generation, and law firm management. The study demonstrates that LegalTech enables significant gains in both efficiency and quality, particularly through the automation of repetitive processes. At the same time, the role of legal professionals is shifting towards more analytical and technology-driven tasks. Overall, LegalTech is understood not as a substitute, but as an opportunity that requires the strategic evolution of existing structures.

The legal market is undergoing significant transformation driven by the deployment of advanced legal AI models. This article examines their impact on the pricing of legal services and demonstrates, using artificial intelligence as an example, that modern large language models can outperform human performance in key areas. This development places increasing pressure on the traditional billable hour model and fosters the emergence of alternative, value-based pricing structures. At the same time, the article explores the resulting opportunities and challenges for law firms, as well as the growing importance of hybrid models of legal work.

Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) enable the cryptographic verification of information without revealing its content. This article examines the working principle of ZKPs, their use cases in the financial and compliance sectors, and the potential of the zkKYC process for privacy-compliant identity verification on the blockchain. It also analyses the regulatory challenges under the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) and possible interim solutions such as compliance oracles and regulated DeFi access points.

Die Autorin untersucht, inwieweit ChatGPT-5 in der Lage ist, rechtliche Lösungen zu liefern, die mit den schweizerischen Rechtsnormen vereinbar sind, und welche Schlussfolgerungen sich daraus für einen verantwortungsvollen Einsatz dieser Modelle in der Rechtspraxis ziehen lassen.

Generative AI is fundamentally transforming legal practice – and in doing so creates an underestimated threat to the training of junior lawyers. Drawing on four guided interviews with Swiss law firms (NKF, Advestra, Lenz & Staehelin, Rödl & Partner), this article shows that law firms are only beginning to recognise the risks. Today, junior lawyers learn through routine tasks – research, first drafts, correspondence – that are billable to clients: training is thus partly funded by the client. AI has the potential to perform these tasks better and at lower cost – which may make clients less willing to pay high hourly rates for them, taking the learning opportunity with it.

Generative AI is everywhere. Legal professions, too, must ask themselves how they should deal with it. The consequences are particularly striking in education and research: students question the value of legal craftsmanship, and companies use peer-reviewed publications to train their own AI tools and monetize them. The author wishes to address several sensitive aspects, aware that the real discussion is only just beginning.

This paper provides an integrated mapping of legal informatics, legal technology, and legal design as complementary perspectives on the interaction between law, humans, and digital systems. It traces the development of legal informatics, contrasts it with the applied focus of legal technology, and introduces legal design as a human-centred approach concerned with goal-reaching, purpose, action, and outcomes. Rather than treating these perspectives as separate, the paper argues that they are stronger when understood as mutually reinforcing dimensions of how legal solutions can be designed and built to better meet the needs of those they are meant to serve. A potential path to-ward integrating all three approaches is discussed.

The paper at hand presents a case study from the Brazilian state of Ceará on using plain language and legal visualisation techniques to improve prisoners’ understanding of their obligations during imprisonment regime progression. In the study, explanatory leaflets combining simple language and visual aids were distributed to inmates in semi-open and open regimes. The pilot led to a 31.54% reduction in non-compliance re-gressions, indicating that clearer communication can significantly enhance compliance and support rehabilitation. Beyond outlining the methodology employed, the paper at hand presents quantitative and qualitative results, and discusses potential implications of the employed methods for access to justice.

Das Recht kann bei der Erfassung digitaler Sachverhalte nicht unmittelbar auf tradierte Erfahrung zurückgreifen. Stattdessen bietet es sich an, sich dafür am Verständnis anderer wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen zu orientieren. Eine in diesem Zusammenhang geeignete Theorie ist die Systemtheorie Niklas Luhmanns. Ausgehend vom Begriff der Kommunikation beschreibt sie die Gesellschaft auf differenzierte Weise, wobei das Konzept des Mediums eine zentrale Rolle einnimmt. Dieser Begriff wird in diesem Beitrag auf digitale Medien angewandt und die daraus resultierenden Erkenntnisse dienen anschließend der Identifikation möglicher Ansatzpunkte für eine digitale rechtliche Ordnung.

Der Beitrag untersucht die Auswirkungen der Verschlüsselung auf den Personenbezug von Daten im Lichte der aktuellen Rechtsprechung des EuGH, insbesondere dessen Urteil in der Rechtssache EDSB/SRB. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, dass die dort entwickelten Grundsätze auf die Verschlüsselung von personenbezogenen Daten übertragbar sind, indem die technischen Grundlagen symmetrischer und asymmetrischer Verschlüsselung sowie deren Sicherheitseigenschaften dargestellt und mit der Begriffsbestimmung der personenbezogenen Daten verknüpft werden. Darauf aufbauend wird dargelegt, wie die Beurteilung des Personenbezugs verschlüsselter Daten anhand der Rechtsprechung des EuGH zu erfolgen hat.

Der EuGH hat sich in seinem SRB-Urteil vom 4. Oktober 2025 erfreulich deutlich zum Personenbezug von Daten geäußert. Die Entscheidung reiht sich in die bisherige Rechtsprechung des EuGH zum Personenbezug von Daten ein und hat große, wenn auch noch umstrittene Folgen für die Praxis. Der Vortrag zielt darauf ab, das Urteil des EuGHs zum Personenbezug von Daten vorzustellen, in den Kontext bisheriger Rechtsprechung zu setzen und seine Implikationen für die Praxis zu skizzieren.

Dieser Artikel untersucht die rechtlichen Herausforderungen der Videoüberwachung im Zusammenhang mit der Verarbeitung besonderer Kategorien personenbezogener Daten gemäß Art. 9 DSGVO. Er analysiert die Auswirkungen aktueller Gerichtsentscheidungen, insbesondere des EuGHs im Fall «Lindenapotheke», welche die Annahme der Existenz sensibler Daten erweitern. Die Untersuchung beleuchtet den Konflikt zwischen dem starken Bedürfnis nach privater Videoüberwachung und den strengen Datenschutzanforderungen aufgrund der nun notwendigen Neueinstufung dabei entstehender Bilddaten als «besondere Kategorien». Zudem werden die Grenzen bestehender rechtlicher Rahmenbedingungen, die Unzulänglichkeit der nationalen Regelung aufgrund Widerspruchs zur DSGVO, sowie der daraus folgende Bedarf legislativer Anpassung thematisiert.

Der Beitrag ordnet die Offenlegungspflichten der Art. 4 und 5 Data Act systematisch in das Gefüge der DSGVO ein. Datenherausgaben können grundsätzlich auf Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit c DSGVO gestützt werden, da der Data Act unionsrechtliche rechtliche Verpflichtungen begründet. Bei personenbezogenen Daten Dritter entsteht eine begrenzte Plausibilisierungspflicht des Dateninhabers, die sich an einem relativen Personenbezug orientiert und als ex-ante-Prüfung auszugestalten ist. Daraus ergibt sich ein praktikables, risikobasiertes Modell für datenschutzkonforme Datenzugänge.

Dark patterns, manipulative interface designs that steer users toward unintended decisions pose growing challenges at the intersection of data protection and consumer law. This paper examines the German regulatory approach to addressing dark patterns, focusing on how consumer-protection rules and data-protection principles interact in enforcement and adjudication. It analyses the role of the Digital Services Act and its national implementation through the Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz, alongside established instruments such as the Unfair Commercial Practices framework and the GDPR. Particular attention is paid to recent German case law and enforcement practices, which illustrate how courts and authorities navigate overlapping regulatory regimes. The paper argues that Germany’s combination of strong private enforcement and coordinated public oversight offers a pragmatic model for addressing manipulative design practices while broader EU initiatives, including the proposed Digital Fairness Act, remain under development.