Call for Papers

The Future Finance Law Hub is organizing the First International Future Finance & Law Symposium—a gathering designed to spark multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder dialogue at the intersection of finance and law. The symposium will feature contributions from leading academics and professionals, encouraging collaboration and exchange of ideas across fields to address the evolving challenges and opportunities in global finance and legal systems.

Call for Abstracts

English abstracts of no more than 200 words may be submitted to futurefinancelawhub@gmail.com by May 9th. These may encompass the following topics: Fintech, Artificial Intelligence, Data, Blockchain, Crypto-assets, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, or legal aspects of the previously mentioned topics.

Deadlines

• Abstract Only Submission: 9 May 2025
• Notification for the Accepted Papers: 19 May 2025
• Full-Paper Submission: 1 August 2025

Conference

The conference will take place on June 6th at the TUM Think Tank and online. This open-to-the-public event offers a platform for forward-thinking discussions that aim to shape the future of financial and legal innovation. All updates can be tracked via the Future Finance Law Hub's LinkedIn page.

The incubation of the Future Finance Law Hub is supported through the Friedrich Schiedel Fellowship hosted at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology and the TUM Think Tank.

Project description

Over the past decade, the European Commission has launched several digital policy initiatives, namely the Digital Agenda (2010) under President Barroso, the Digital Single Market Strategy (2015) under President Juncker, and Europe’s Digital Decade Program (2021) under President von der Leyen. While each of those initiatives was based on accurate findings and presented good strategies to do both, tackling certain digital risks and accelerating the digital transformation, the final outcome was in all three cases rather underwhelming. The 2024 Competitiveness Report, written by the former ECB President Mario Draghi, listed the EU’s underperforming digital economy as one of the main threats for maintaining our living standards and safeguarding our democratic systems.

The project aims, firstly, to critically scrutinize and evaluate the three digital policy initiatives of the Commission, determining their effectiveness, achievements, and areas needing improvement. By analysing their policy objectives against actual outcomes, it will also be able to identify structural challenges within the EU Institutions, allowing it to work on general reform proposals. In a second part, the project will apply its findings specifically to the field of privacy. It will evaluate the GDPR’s impact on data protection, business compliance, and digital innovation. Informed by the three-layered GDPR revision proposal brought up by MEP Axel Voss and privacy advocate Max Schrems in early March 2025, it will attempt to develop a concrete legislative proposal that aims to better balance robust EU data protection with practical compliance measures for businesses of all sizes.

Project Goals

Approach

Part 1: Evaluating a Decade of EU Digital Strategies

• Comprehensive Literature Review: Examine official EU documents, academic studies, and industry reports related to the EU’s overall digital policy agenda to better understand the objectives and implementations.
• Stakeholder Interviews: Conduct interviews with policymakers, industry leaders, and academics to gather diverse perspectives on the successes and shortcomings of these policy initiatives.
• Comparative Analysis: Compare the intended goals of each strategy with actual outcomes, identifying gaps and areas where expectations were met or exceeded.

Part 2: GDPR Evaluation and Reform Proposal

• Targeted Impact Assessment: Analyse the GDPR’s effects across various sectors, considering both positive outcomes and challenges faced by companies, organizations, and data subjects.
• Case Studies: Develop detailed case studies of businesses of different sizes to illustrate how the GDPR has been implemented and its practical implications.
• Reform Proposal: Utilize findings from the targeted impact assessment as well as the case studies, along with ideas from the Voss-Schrems initiative, to formulate a nuanced GDPR reform proposal that incorporates a true risk-based approach into the law.

Deliverables

Part 1: Evaluating a Decade of EU Digital Strategies

• Comprehensive Report: A detailed analysis of the EU’s digital strategies over the past decade, highlighting achievements, shortcomings, and lessons learned.
• Policy Recommendations: A set of actionable recommendations aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of future EU digital policies, ensuring they are well coordinated as well as adaptable for the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Part 2: GDPR Evaluation and Reform Proposal

• Targeted Impact Assessment Analysis: Evaluation of the GDPR’s impact on various stakeholders, including businesses, citizens, and regulatory bodies.
• Reform Proposal: A well-substantiated proposal for a targeted GDPR reform, incorporating a tiered compliance framework, as suggested by Voss and Schrems, better fitted to the needs of different types of organizations.
• Policy Briefings: Concise documents summarizing key findings and recommendations, designed to inform and influence policymakers, industry stakeholders, and the public.

About Kai Zenner

Kai Zenner is Head of Office and Digital Policy Adviser for MEP Axel Voss (EPP) in the European Parliament, specializing in AI policy, privacy, and the EU's digital transition. Before, he worked as Research Associate at the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation. His extensive experience also includes roles as Member of the OECD.AI Network of Experts, the AI Governance Alliance at the World Economic Forum, and before the United Nations' temporary Expert Group supporting the High-Level Advisory Body on AI.

He holds degrees in political science from the University of Bremen (B.A.) and the University of Edinburgh (M.Sc.) as well as a State Exam in law from the University of Münster. Recognized for his influence on digital policy, Zenner was awarded Best MEP Assistant (2023), ranked #13 in Politico’s Power 40 (2023), received the European AI Award (2024), and was highlighted by Euronews as one of '14 movers and shakers' in Tech policy to watch in 2025.

The Fellowship of Practice is carried out in a personal capacity.

Fellowship of Practice in Collaboration with our Labs

At the TUM Think Tank, Kai Zenner will collaborate with the Law & Tech Lab led by Boris Paal, the Ethical Data Initiative led by Sabina Leonelli, the GovTech Initiative led by Markus Siewert and Urs Gasser, and the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC) led by Armando Guio Español.

Workshop Program

Keynotes, panel discussions, mini-workshops, and networking breaks brought together diverse stakeholders from academia, civil society, industry, and government. Together, we explored the latest research on harmful online content and brainstormed actionable strategies to address these pressing challenges.

We focused on two central questions:

1. What do we know about the challenges of hate speech and mis- and disinformation online, and how can we best approach them?
2. What do we know about effective solutions, strategies, and tools to combat these issues?

Some key takeaways of the two-day workshop:

Consistency Matters: Clear and consistent definitions of harmful content, like hate speech, are essential for guiding action. However, finding the best approach to achieve this remains an open challenge.
Focused Interventions: It’s important to differentiate between “harmful but lawful” content and “illegal” content to enable targeted and effective interventions.
Effective Countermeasures: Counterspeech and content moderation are powerful tools but must be implemented thoughtfully. It’s crucial to base intervention strategies on solid evidence to ensure they lead to meaningful impact.
Access to Data: Limited access to platform data remains a barrier, hindering our ability to comprehensively study harmful content, such as misinformation, and its real-world effects.
Technological Trade-offs: While algorithmic changes and other tech-driven solutions can help reduce misinformation, they often come with trade-offs, like reduced access to political news or decreased diversity in discourse.
Adapting Moderation: Looking forward, we need to consider moderation tools that can keep pace with the growing volume and speed of online content production.

The workshop was co-organized in collaboration with the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM), the Bavarian State Ministry of Justice (StMJ), the Institute for Strategic Dialogue Germany (ISD), das NETTZ, the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt), and the Content Moderation Lab at the TUM Think Tank.

Project Description

Challenge: Societal Resilience and Strategic Autonomy

Geopolitical tensions are at an all-time high, as highlighted by the Berlin 2024 Security Conference, which warned of escalating threats to NATO on Europe's eastern flank. Ensuring peace through deterrence is not limited to conventional military capabilities; it requires robust defenses against hybrid warfare, including attacks on critical infrastructure, social media, and political stability. Building resilience at all levels of society, especially in the digital realm, is essential, including cloud computing, the “operating system” of modern societies.

While European public sector organizations and their partners have made progress in securing sovereign cloud infrastructures - "Sovereignty of the Cloud" - simply having European-based, legally compliant offerings is no longer enough. Enterprises must operationalize sovereignty in the cloud and maintain true autonomy and security when using complex, multi-cloud environments. This requires translating theoretical constructs into practical frameworks, tools, and policies that enable public administrations to not only choose sovereign infrastructures, but to act sovereignly within them - managing applications, data, devices, and users in ways that enhance resilience, deter potential aggressors, and uphold democratic values.

Making Digital Sovereignty in the Cloud Actionable

As a Fellow of Practice at the TUM Think Tank, Philipp sees a unique opportunity to bring together multidisciplinary expertise to shape a research agenda that makes digital sovereignty in the cloud actionable. By doing so, we can help build societal resilience and strategic autonomy in the face of emerging cyber threats and strengthen Europe's digital backbone as a deterrent and peacekeeper.

Project Goals

Approach

1. From Abstract to Operational: Develop and refine a conceptual framework that moves beyond theory toward implementable “Sovereignty in the Cloud” practices, outlining clear, actionable principles for public institutions.
2. Policy-Tech Integration: Align legal, regulatory, and strategic considerations with technical and organizational capabilities, producing guidance that enables European administrations to maintain security, compliance, and autonomy in multi-cloud environments.
3. Practical Tools and Capacity Building: Deliver a playbook, teaching cases, and workshop formats that empower decision-makers and practitioners to navigate complexity effectively, enhancing deterrence and resilience through concrete measures.

Deliverables

1. Theory-to-Practice Paper: Draft a concise white paper defining sovereignty-in-the-cloud in tangible terms. Anchor the concepts in existing EU regulations, Governmental policy and cloud providers capacity to provide a coherent framework linking policy to technical responsibilities.
2. Proof-of-Concept (PoC): Partner with a sovereign cloud provider and a public-sector body to test the framework.
3. Knowledge Transfer and Community Building: Utilize the Digital Sovereignty Talks platform and host curated roundtables at the TUM Think Tank. Gather input from policymakers, cloud providers, cybersecurity experts, and academic researchers to refine and stress-test the framework.
4. Educational Integration and Tools: Develop a teaching case—building on the style of my “OpenAI Board Drama” case, to illustrate real-world sovereignty-in-the-cloud dilemmas. Produce a playbook offering step-by-step guidance, enabling organizations to implement robust multi-cloud strategies that enhance resilience and serve as a digital deterrent.
5. Sovereignty-in-the-Cloud Playbook: A comprehensive, action-oriented guide that helps European administrations operationalize digital sovereignty within multi-cloud environments.

About Philipp Müller

Philipp is dedicated to advancing the resilient digital transformation of governments, multilateral institutions, and global society. He is Vice President for the Public Sector at DriveLock SE, a Fellow at the TUM Think Tank, and a BKC Circle member at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center. With senior leadership roles at Amazon Web Services, Gartner, and DXC, Philipp brings extensive experience at the intersection of technology and policy. He has taught and conducted research at Tecnológico de Monterrey, the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, and the Harvard Kennedy School. An accomplished author, he has published books and articles on digital transformation. Philipp holds a PhD from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

The Fellowship of Practice is carried out in a personal capacity.

A two-day workshop bringing together experts in the field

Content moderation and free speech in the digital realm - and how to balance them - are key topics for researchers, philosophers, public officials, NGOs, and, of course, social media platforms and users. At the TUM Think Tank, we had the pleasure of hosting a number of international experts in this field. The group came together for two full days focused on analyzing this pressing issue, exchanging ideas, and presenting empirical research from the perspectives of governance, industry, and political behavior.

From ideological biases in content moderation and the politics of platform regulation to citizens’ preferences on how online harmful speech can be curved and regulated, and the efficacy of labeling content as AI-generated, the workshop covered a wide range of topics, stressing the need for a transnational conversation about content moderation.

Panel discussion

In a thought-provoking panel together with Benjamin Brake (Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport), Friedrich Enders (TikTok Germany), Andreas Frank (Bavarian Ministry of Justice), and Ruth Appel (Stanford University), we discussed the complexities of defining harmful speech and taking action against it, how platforms are audited and how they balance transparency with user privacy and free expression when it comes to content moderation decisions.

The conversation centered on the division of responsibility for content moderation and the transparency of enforcement from the key stakeholders involved. It was noted that while the German government is responsible for smaller platforms not covered under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Commission is responsible for larger ones like X or TikTok.

• While the precise ways in which tech companies should deal with harmful speech based on the definitions and guidelines provided by the DSA are clouded by some vagueness, a common theme in the discussion was the necessity for transparency in content moderation decisions and the need to always take context into consideration. Based on the conversation, vagueness in defining harmful speech can be seen as a flexible way of dealing with it by tech companies and governments. Researchers, on the other hand, pointed out that it can also be problematic, especially when it comes to its precise detection through automated methods.
• In addition, Friedrich Enders shed light on TikTok's content moderation process. The platform uses a combination of AI and human review to quickly remove harmful content. Conscious of the fact that some harmful, e.g. graphic content, may still be in the public interest, such content may remain on the platform for documentary, educational, and counter-speech purposes, but would be ineligible for recommendation to users on TikTok’s For You feed.
• The panel also highlighted the challenge of balancing freedom of expression, user privacy, and user safety, with TikTok stressing their commitment to both principles, with the government strongly advising that the importance of upholding freedom of expression is such that one should always opt for freedom of speech when one is doubtful about how borderlines cases need to be moderated.

The Chair of Digital Governance co-jointly organized the workshop at the Munich School of Politics and Public Policy, the University of Oxford, the Technical University of Munich, and the Reboot Social Media Lab at the TUM Think Tank.