When? Who? What? Where?

On Tuesday 28 May 2019, Ms. Nathalie Smuha, addresses the hot topic of Artificial Intelligence and ethics at Digityser in Brussels.

The EU High-level Expert Group

Ms. Smuha is a.o. closely involved in the work of the EU high-level expert group on AI which in April 2019 has delivered a first part of its work, namely a framework for trustworthy AI.

She will enlighten us on that framework for trustworthy AI, the “living nature” of that document (cf. the invitation to use the checklist and give feedback) and the other next steps for the EU high-level expert group.

RSVP

Artificial Intelligence: what framework to use?

Tuesday, May 28, 2019, 6:30 PM

DigitYser
Boulevard d’Anvers 40 Bruxelles, BE

24 Legal Hackers Attending

The question of how to govern AI has long been a question of science fiction. Artificial Intelligence is not new. But recently the available data and computing power allows for systems that actually show a kind of intelligence. Recently a special task force of the European Union has delivered a report with suggestions on how to deal with AI. Nathal…

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If you want to have an easy overview of events by the Brussels Legal Hackers, and by others but relevant for the Brussels Legal Hackers : check our calendar.

Brussels Legal Hackers joined the second annual Computational Law & Blockchain Festival, the decentralized festival of events in March 2019 throughout the world on the mechanization of legal reasoning and on blockchain.

On Saturday 16 March 2109 in the venue of StartIt some 30 legal hackers focussed on blockchain technology, its use cases, its relation to the (European) legislation on data protection, investment protection, payer and payee protection and taxation.

A short report per keynote:

Blockchain, the technology

General introduction

Gerrie Smits kicked off the event explaining

(a) the basics of blockchain (a.o. immutability, “if… then…”, value transfer, tokenisation and token transfer, decentralisation, game theory and aligned incentives) and
(b) looking at it from a business perspective (“Is This Something For Us?“)

with practical examples of (actual) use cases like a local blockchain to follow the support money granted to refugees, fractional ownership of real estate, incentives to cycle to school, “selling your eyeballs” (advertising),…

through the value mapping framework, which brings innovation (value) theory and design thinking in the picture

To conclude he launched a specific point of interest, namely organisational design. Starting from the question whether the “tragedy of the commons” can be overcome (looking at theories of a.o. Elinor Ostrom) , he looks at initiatives that may address this by using blockchain technology: Colony, Aragon, OrgTech,…
This is material for a (future) hack(athon).

The title of his keynote “Blockchain is WTF” refers to the title of the book he wrote (in Dutch) which is packed with use cases.

Gerrie’s slides:

Technical introduction

Koen Vingerhoets explained

(a) the basics of blockchain in its 6 key elements (transparency, ownership, traceability, distributed, trust, smart contracts), which has proven to work with boards of directors, corporate management, etc., and

(b) a few technical aspects on blockchain, like hashing, smart and ricardian contracts, bugs in the code, private ledgers, aspects to take into account to govern a (private) blockchain, and the impact of (EU) regulation.

One of his conclusion is that he sees a move in the (corporate) blockchain community

  • from permissionless to permissioned blockchains
  • from “unbound decentralisation” to governance
  • from cryptocurrencies to smart contracts (even ricardian contracts)

Koen’s slides:

 

Blockchain and privacy / data protection

Axel Beelen takes a look at how blockchain and the (European) data protection regulation can be reconciled.

Questions he addressed were:

  • What is GDPR?
  • What are the basic principles of GDPR?
  • Can personal data on the blockchain (and thus application of GDPR) be avoided?
  • How does data minimisation pitch in?
  • How does pseudonymisation pitch in?
  • Who has what role in a blockchain setup? controller, joint controller,…
  • How would rights of data subjects work?

Alex found sources like

Axel is the author of a practical GDPR guide (in French).

Axel’s slides:

 

Blockchain assets

 

Regulation of crypto-assets

Willem Van de Wiele took it upon him to update us on the legal aspects of blockchain and crypto-assets:

(1) at the EU level

a) the 2018 FinTech Action plan  
b) the 2019 ESMA report  (ESMA = European Securities and Markets Authority)
c) the 2019 EBA report (EBA = European Banking Authority)

(2) at the national level

a) Luxembourg
b) France
c) Italy
d) Germany

Willem’s slides:

 

Taxation of crypto-assets

Hendrik Putman, partner at the law firm Mythra, explained how cryptocurrencies in Belgian are (likely to be) taxed.

  • what are the potential bases for taxation?
  • what are indicators of “professional income”?
  • what are indicators of “miscellaneous income”?
  • is allocating the assets to (not ) for-profit corporations a good idea?
  • how does the bitcoin (taxation) tool work ?
  • when is it reasonable to go for a tax ruling?
  • when is it reasonable to go for a tax documentation preparation?

The conclusion is that rather than going for a formal ruling by the tax authority, the most commonly advised practice is to draft a “defence memorandum” with all evidence of the origin and transactions in crypto-assets.

Hendrik’s slides

 

Blockchain as payment instrument

Niels Vandezande, from the niche law firm Time.lex discussed virtual currencies

  • What was the payment landscape when bitcoin started out (2008/2009) v what is it now?
  • What is bitcoin’s place in the payment landscape?
  • What are alternatives (for the underbanked)?
  • What is money?
  • Does the e-money directive apply to virtual currencies? in principle, no
  • Does the payment services directive apply to virtual currencies (services)? in principle, no

Niels is the author of a PhD, which is published as a book, on “Virtual Currencies: a legal framework” (in English).

Niels’ slides

 

Where, when ?

The event is scheduled for Tuesday 23 April 2019. You can join us as from 18h30. The keynote should start at about 19h00. In case of a lively interaction the event may take a few hours.

The law firm Time.Lex  – a niche law firm that a.o. assembles experts on data protection – is so kind to host the event in their offices, which are at walking distance from Brussels’ central railway station.

The issue

Just make it data protection by design, ok?

Developers want ‘specs’. The DPO required privacy / data protection by design (PbD) like article 25 GDPR. The project manager only manages the project. The product / process manager has no clue how to translate “article 25 GDPR” to his product or process. Bloody hell, what a mess. And we are not even taking into account that parts of this project are outsourced.

Yes, implementing PbD is not easy. It is hardly defined, so getting there requires work, or more correct collaboration. If everybody says “not my job” you end up with a disaster, a Frankenstein’s monster at best. Thinking PbD from the beginning gets you off to a good start. But then there is the matter of making PbD tangible, specific, so the business and/or IT can document it, implement it, and control it. Not an easy feat.

PRiSE model

KULeuven’s Pierre Dewitte (@PiDewitte) has been working on that issue with colleagues. They have come up with the PRiSE meta model which might help bring the people in your organisation together around the notion of PbD.

Your approach?

Of course, this is also an opportunity to share your experiences and your approach on how to implement PbD.

RSVP

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Engineering data protection (with PRiSE meta model)

Tuesday, Apr 23, 2019, 6:30 PM

Timelex Law Offices
Rue Joseph Stevens 7 Bruxelles, BE

1 Legal Hackers Attending

Developers want ‘specs’. The DPO required privacy / data protection by design (PbD) like article 25 GDPR. The project manager only manages the project. The product / process manager has no clue how to translate “article 25 GDPR” to his product or process. Bloody hell, what a mess. And we are not even taking into account that parts of this project a…

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If you want to have an easy overview of events by the Brussels Legal Hackers, and by others but relevant for the Brussels Legal Hackers : check our calendar.

When? who? what? where?

On 28 February 2019 Future Lawyers Belgium organised an “innovation café” keynote by the dean of Vlerick business school, prof. dr. ir. Marion Debruyne, on innovation in the Kortrijk co-creation hub HangarK.

Confrontation with innovation

The confrontation with innovation is not new. Just as one recent movie example Ms. Debruyne refers to the movie Hidden Figures in which “computers” are still people that calculate.

Confronted with innovation the choice is to undergo the change or the steer the change.

 

Innovation in 3D

Digital, data, disruption

Looking at the current innovation Ms. Debruyne classifies it with 3 D’s:

  • Digital: this step was barely discussed as that was the focus / premise for the keynote
  • Data: (note this differs from the x V’s of Big Data)
    • data has been available in factories for ages (one could say from Ford’s separation of tasks in the production process up to the measurement of every piece in kanban systems)
    • the recent change is the volume of data
      • creation has expanded with the proliferation of sensors (incl. smart phones, wearables, IoT, …) that are connected and thus deliver data real-time
      • storage is cheaper and easier (a.o. with cloud computing)
      • computing power to analyse the data is cheaper and easier to handle (a.o. with cloud computing)
  • Disruption:
    • Schumpeter with his theory of “creative destruction” (1940’s) already described the concept of and need for replacement of the old by the new
    • Christensen with his theory of the “disruptive innovation” (in the book Innovator’s dilemma – 1997) already indicated that disruption is not sudden, but stems from the incumbent following his customers up the value chain (“better and better”), while new entrants service the customers that consider their product “good enough”

 

Impact of innovation

In broad strokes innovation can have three types of impact on the business

  • it can replace the business and/or (some of) its staff
  • it can enhance the business, its processes, and/or its staff
  • it can transform the business model

None of those is per se good or bad. It matter how you deal with it: as a person, as a business, and as a society.

 

Detecting (disruptive) innovation

Dream your worst nightmare …

It is a misconception that businesses can detect (disruptive) innovation when it hits off. Typically innovation will be in a blind spot of the business, at best it can be detected with peripheral vision.

Disruptive innovation

  • does not (per se) come from competitors in your field, but from outsiders. Uber is not a taxi company. Airbnb is not a hotel chain.
  • is not (per se and initially) felt in a decrease in customers. Low cost air travel and Airbnb are not after the frequent traveller, but serves the people that only occasionally take a (short) trip.
  • is not a premium product that delights customers. Certainly in the beginning disruptive innovation is a hassle, but for its target audience, it is “good enough”: low cost air travel with less leg room, no food in flight, etc. will not be the result of a survey of an premium air travel company on what the customer wants, rather the opposite (extra features like massage, fitness, … on board of long haul flights). By consequence: asking customers what they like, will not lead to detection of the innovation.

 

Quite often the above is the consequence of a conscious strategy of the disruptor, referred to as judo strategy or judo economics. The “attacking” startup company is therein advised

  • to stay out of sight of the incumbent as long as possible
  • to avoid openly going after the incumbents customers but rather to address “unserved” (or “underserved”) customers; e.g. Netflix servicing a Blockbuster public that did not want immediate access to the movie they rented from the brick and mortar store, but a public that wanted the comfort of being mailed movies from their wishlist on a subscription basis.
  • to use the force of the opponent against himself; quite often this means being faster than the corporate decision making structure, being more open than an incumbent relying on closed and proprietary systems, avoiding applicability of legal requirements that protect the position of the incumbent,…

In short disruptive innovation happens in the fringes. Or as the slide stated:

When spring comes… snow melts first at the edges.

Given the low detectability, in the end, the advice, next to keeping your eyes open, is to “dream your worst nightmare”.

 

Prepare for (disruptive) innovation

Dream your worst nightmare, and then invest in it 

(Rosabeth Moss Kanter, WSJ, Nov. 2013)

Of course, detecting (disruptive) innovation is not enough. One should (re)act. As the say:

The best way to create the future is to participate in it.

There is quite some “cold water” to overcome to do that. Resources are scarce: what innovation is relevant for you to invest in? (Look outside. Partner up.) What if you bet on the wrong horse? (Wait.) What if you wait too long? (Accelerate.) What if you go too fast and the market is not ready?

Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slow

(Reed Hastings, CEO Netflix, 2011)

How should we apply that to education?

As the dean of a business school, clearly Ms. Debruyne is also confronted with the upcoming changes in education, which is often more and more searched for in online content on generic platforms like Youtube (founded in 2005) or specialised platforms like Coursera (founded in 2012) and EdX (founded in 2012).

One of the changes to the strategy is to develop online programmes: premium content specifically made for online consumption working with an off-the-shelf solution. The latter being important to avoid becoming dependant on the provider of the technical solution and thus losing the control over who captures the added value delivered to the student.

Another change to the strategy is to (co-)develop programmes for specific sectors or even with / for specific corporate partners.

 

How should we apply that to lawyers?

This is in the end the question that needs to be answered by “future lawyers”. Ms. Debruyne did not include this in her keynote. They idea was to discuss on that.

A few take-aways that I captured from the discussion are:

  • Detect
    • Look at who provides solutions for your clients: accountants, belangenverenigingen (Unizo, …), ondernemingsloketten (Acerta, Partena, …), online fora (jureca.be), youtube filmpjes (ALWY), online contract creation tools (lawbox.be, juridox.nl,…),…
    • What potential clients are not served today: for whom is the cost of a lawyer too high, leading to that person not even bothering? Look for example at experiments with freemium models for advice, collection processes that aim to streamline and avoid taking from the capital amount (cf. unpaid.be, collectonline.be,…)
    • Look at business models that can be threatening, e.g. “no cure, no pay” which is not allowed for an attorney, but not for other service providers, subscription,…
  • Act
    • As a lawyer, don’t focus on what you cannot control (or influence), like the organisation of the third branch of government, the courts. It can be frustrating that there is little movement in processes like summoning a counterparty, presence at the courthouse, exchange of briefs, duration of a court case, (ab)use of procedural loopholes,… Rather focus on what you can control (or influence), which is your relationship with the client, and the organisation of your firm.
    • Look at what tasks add little value and see if they can be automated, like (e)discovery, document screening, explaining basic principles and concepts of law to customers,…
    • Should you build something yourself, use an off-the-shelf product but install it “locally”, or jump on board of a platform?
      • Building is often not the solution, unless it gives you a competitive advantage that (almost) ensures you return on investment. In that, take into account that your client in principle can ask for his case file to be handed over or transferred to another lawyer (contract law), a copy of his personal data (art. 15 GDPR) and/or to port some of his personal data (art. 20 GDPR).
      • With the other solutions it is important to avoid technical, factual, and legal lock-in and/or dependency.

But of course, there is a lot more to think about.

 

To be continued.

 

 

If you went to a #legalhack event (not per se by the Legal Hackers) and want to share it in a blogpost. Feel free to contact us.

Topic

The topic of the event is computational law and blockchain, with a focus on blockchain.

The definition of computational law is somewhat fluid. Wikipedia states it as follows: Computational law is a branch of legal informatics concerned with the mechanization of legal reasoning (whether done by humans or by computers)”. It emphasizes explicit behavioral constraints and eschews implicit rules of conduct. Importantly, there is a commitment to a level of rigor in specifying laws that is sufficient to support entirely mechanical processing.

Blockchain is more fixed, but still is sometimes confused (due to the overlap) with distributed ledger and virtual currencies like bitcoin. Here is a video in which it is explain in 5 stages, starting with “explain it to me like I am a 5 year old”:

Event type: keynotes with discussion

The event will mainly use the mechanic of a speaker presenting a keynote and then allowing for questions and discussion.

Of course this event is also a nice way to get to know some of the people active in the field, perhaps even “kindred souls”.

Unfortunately this year there is no hack-challenge (hands-on tackling a blockchain related issue that is practically relevant for the issuer of such challenge). This may be something to think about for next year.

When, what, where?

The event is scheduled for Saturday 16 March 2019 in the afternoon (arrival at 13h00, keynotes of about 45 minutes as from 13h30). With the current line-up of speakers it is likely to go on to about 18h00. This is the plan

13h30 – 14h15 Gerrie Smits – Introduction
14h15 – 15h00 Koen Vingerhoets – From 7331 to legal: a selection of blockchain discussion topics
15h00 – 15h45 Willem Van de Wiele – Legal aspects (TBC)
15h45 – 16h00 (pauze / buffer)
16h00 – 16h45 Axel Beelen – Blockchain and data protection
16h45 – 17h30 Niels Vandezande – Virtual currencies – a viable transfer of value?
17h30 – 18h00 Hendrik Putman – Taxation of virtual currencies

The event will be held in Brussels, in the site of St@rtIT. The address is Havenlaan 8 Av. du Port 8, 1080 Brussels. That is at walking distance of the metro station Yser, in the North East side of Brussels.

Speakers

We are lucky to already have the following speakers (see below on how to contact us if you also want to briefly speak):

Gerrie Smits

Speaker and coach for digital transformation

Author of the book “Blockchain is WTF” (waarschijnlijk toch fundamenteel)

Twitter: @gerriesmits     

Slideshare: GerrieSmits

Koen Vingerhoets

Blockchain advisor with Belfius

Twitter: @IthronKoen     

Slideshare: KoenVingerhoets

Willem Van de Wiele

Attorney with White and Case

Twitter: @WVandewieleW

Axel Beelen

Expert in blockchain, data protection and intellectual property

Twitter: @IPnewsbe

Niels Vandezande

Attorney with Time.Lex

Author of “Virtual currencies: a legal framework”

Research fellow at CiTiP (KULeuven)

Twitter : @NielsVandezande

Hendrik Putman

Attorney with Mythra

Bitcoin taxation decision tree

Twitter: @HendrikPutman

 

What can you do?

We are always looking for

  • additional speakers (sharing their academic or practical experience)
  • some volunteers to help on the day itself prepping speakers, guiding groups,…

So if you can help with that, please, contact us via the contact form or via email.

But even if it would only interest you to come listen to the speakers and participate in the discussions, it would be good that you already RSVP, so we can show other interested parties that it is worth their while to join in as well.

And of course, you can spread the word.

RSVP

You can RSVP via meetup:

Computational Law & Blockchain Festival: Brussels Edition

Saturday, Mar 16, 2019, 9:00 AM

Brussels
Brussels, BE

21 Legal Hackers Attending

Brussels is joining the second annual Computational Law & Blockchain Festival! It’s a decentralized festival of events taking place in March throughout the world on the mechanization of legal reasoning and on blockchain. #clbfest2019 Globally there are 3 different tracks: [1] Learn: New to computational law or blockchain technology? This is your ch…

Check out this Meetup →

If you want to have an easy overview of events by the Brussels Legal Hackers, and by others but relevant for the Brussels Legal Hackers : check our calendar.

Global context

This events is part of the larger organisation of events on computational law and blockchain around the world by different legal hacker chapters / nodes throughout March 2019.

 

(Update 2 March 2019: addition of the speaker on taxation)

(Update 8 March: addition of the timing of the lineup)

Where, when ?

The event is scheduled for Thursday 21 February 2019.

The event will be held at the VUB in Brussels (near metro station “Petillion” and tram stop “VUB”).

Topic: data subject rights

Data Subject Rights are a given in the data protection legislation (mainly Chapter III, but also part of Chapter VIII of the GDPR; rights under the Patients Rights legislation, etc.).

Data controllers have to organise themselves so they can appropriately respond to a data subject’s request, they have to inform the data subjects of their rights (art. 13-14 GDPR), go for processes and technology that respects and embeds those rights (art. 25 GDPR, maybe set up arrangements with data processors on how those should support the data controller in case of such requests (art. 28 §3 GDPR), etc.

Event type: workshop

At this event the speakers will start from empirical findings on some of the data subject rights. The basis are two studies: on the “right to access” and one on the right to explanation of fully automated decisions. From there the idea is to have an interdisciplinary workshop to discuss the feasibility of existing solutions, and – why not? – laying the groundwork for further innovative approaches.

Of course we would like to see input and participation from the legal hackers attending this event.

“Speakers”

We are lucky to have the following speakers / lead participants:

Jef Ausloos

Jef Ausloos is a research fellow for CiTiP (KULeuven). That is also where you can find links to his publications. He recently became a “doctor in law” with a PhD thesis on “the right to be forgotten“. After that he has also picked up a position as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, within the team looking at personalised communication.

You can follow him on twitter by the handle: jausl00s.

Pierre Dewitte

Pierre Dewitte is a researcher at the CiTiP (KULeuven). That is also where you can find links to his publications, which focus on data protection.

You can follow him on twitter by the handle: PiDewitte.

Laurens Naudts

Laurens Naudts is a doctoral researcher at CiTiP (KULeuven). That is also where you can find links to his publications, which focus on data protection, algorithms, and machine learning.

You can follow him on twitter by the handle: Robonaudts.

Luciana Monteiro Krebs

Luciana Monteiro Krebs is a visiting researcher at Mintlab. She is a scholarship holder of the Project “Comparative matrix of qualitative research with digital technology users”. She also works on her PhD. Her publications are mainly in Portuguese.

You can follow her on twitter by the handle: lumk_

Oscar Alvarado Oscar Alvarado is a researcher at Mintlab. His research focuses on algorithmic experience and how to design user-centered technologies that contain relevant algorithms that could affect the user’s experience.
Elias Storms Elias Storms is a researcher at Mintlab. His research focuses on algorithmic accountability. He deploys qualitative and participatory methods to investigate and improve user experience and transparency of algorithms in the dissemination of news.

RSVP

You can RSVP via meetup:

Data Subject Rights: fact finding

Thursday, Feb 21, 2019, 7:00 PM

No location yet.

1 Legal Hackers Attending

Data Subject Rights are a given in the data protection legislation (mainly Chapter III, but also part of Chapter VIII of the GDPR; rights under the Patients Rights legislation, etc.). Data controllers have to organise themselves so they can appropriately respond to a data subject’s request, they have to inform the data subjects of their rights (art…

Check out this Meetup →

 

If you want to have an easy overview of events by the Brussels Legal Hackers, and by others but relevant for the Brussels Legal Hackers : check our calendar.

By accident we came across the following overview of legaltech in France, via Young Avotech (facebook, linkedin, twitter).

They seem to have done a similar overview exercise for legaltech in France, together Actualités du Droit (Wolters Kluwer France) et Maddyness (magazine for / on startups).

For a short accompanying article (in French), we refer to the website of “Actualités du droit”.

This is the placeholder for the Brussels participation to the second edition of the global Computational Law & Blockchain Fest. The focus will be on Saturday 16 March 2019.

What can you do?

We are still looking for

  • a venue
  • additional speakers (sharing their academic or practical experience)
  • additional hack challenges, i.e. assignments to build a concrete solution to a blockchain related issue (to present Belgian challenges that can be launched globally next to the global ones that are arranged for in the USA)
  • some volunteers to help on the day itself prepping speakers, guiding groups,…

So if you can help with that, please, contact us.

But even if it would only interest you to come listen to the speakers and participate in the discussions, it would be good that you already RSVP, so we can show speakers, venues, and potential sponsors that it is worth their while to join in as well.

CLBFest – LEARN / DISCUSS (placeholder)

Saturday, Mar 16, 2019, 9:00 AM

No location yet.

1 Legal Hackers Attending

This is a placeholder for the learn/discuss part of the hackathon

Check out this Meetup →

 

Remember the first edition

We can look back on a first edition in March 2018, which could not have been organised but with the help of Digityser and Lawbox, and the great speakers:

You can find the footage of the event in the facebook video library of Digityser on the date of 17 March 2018. We apologise for the bad quality for a (first) section, which are due to a technical issue that messed up the voice recording.

Check out the global organisation

If you want to look at how the global organisation is doing, you can follow that on

If you want to have an easy overview of events by the Brussels Legal Hackers, and by others but relevant for the Brussels Legal Hackers : check our calendar.

Olivier Mangelschots has drafted a visual overview of legal tech in Belgium in January 2019. This is the result:

These are the links to most of these:

For a few months now we have started gathering the basic information of events in Belgium (and near surroundings) that seem of interest to the Belgian legal hackers community. We bundle that information in an open google calendar.

If you want to share events in this calendar, feel free to contact us.

The advantage of working with an open calendar is that if you have google calendar yourself, you can easily insert that calendar as an additional calendar in your google calendar. If at some point you want to shortly switch it of to keep the overview of your calendar, you can. If you want to give it another color, so it distinguishes from other entities in your calendar, you can.

This 1 minute video shows you how you can do that:

The calendar is linked to the account legalhackersbxl@gmail.com.

If you want to insert the calendar in your iCal (apple calendar app), this is another 1 minute video that shows you how you can do that: