Week 13/2026
Just a Tango.
NSFW
This wek's song is not a song but an Argentinan tango.
It's from Carlos Libedinsky Narcotango is one of his older projects.
Retrospect
Ewald Wiederin
My colleague Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ewald Wiederin was celebrated with a symposion due to his 65th birthday that I attended in the audience. It was avery remarkable come together and status determination in (public) law with hundreds of participants and very many well known academics and practitioners, including the president, the vice president and (i believe) six current judges of Austria's Constitutional Court.
Media Funding Reform
I spent Monday and Tuesday to discuss with Dr. Andy Kaltenbrunner (Medienhaus Wien) their study on how to reform Austria's public funding of media. The study is due end of March and will be presented in interesting times, also due to the ongoing "ORF-debate" (of which Christian Nusser has the best summary I know so far). The venue was nice, Markhof.
Kaltenbrunner debated about some aspects dealing with ORF in ORF on Sunday.
Alfred J. Noll
The meeting became a very sad one on Monday early afternoon when we heard that Alfred J. Noll had passed away earlier that day. Noll was, among the many things he did, a founding partner of Medienhaus Wien and a close friend and/or role model to all the people present, including me. I met Noll thirty years ago, as a brilliant legal philosopher and political thinker, in the context of JURIDIKUM - the then really "alternative" legal journal (unthinkable, today) - and admired him deeply for being so unique, open minded and - among all the rest - supportive and friendly.
I always admired how well-rounded his knowledge and his interests were. I just couldn't imagine how one person could read so much, know so much, speak so eloquently and have so many artistic interests beyond the law.
I remember meeting him on a panel about Ferdinand Schmatz in Literarisches Quartier Alte Schmiede in 1997
For him, this was probably one of hundreds of similar events on literature, for me this was one of my very first public appearences - and in a field I had entered without any qualification. He was so kindly navigating all of us there and so diligently saving me.
The Greens, SPÖ, Rechtsanwaltskammer Wien and even the FPÖ wrote obituaries, as well as many very different people on social media (like Richard Soyer, Franz Medwenitsch, Ines Rössl); Armin Thurnher wrote a wonderful text on him with an end that I fully endorse. Medienhaus Wien has a very personal text as well. Der Standard has a condolence book and a compilation of his posts in the Standard Forum. Alte Schmiede references to a YouTube video with him about Kant.
The world is a colder and a poorer place without him.
Social Media Ban for the Youth
The topic is still very much on the agenda, although there's still no draft law - or any other useful document - available.
I managed to sneak the laundry into ORF III due to an interview on the matter:
NIS2
I did an online debate/webinar with my friend, colleague and role model Dr. Lukas Feiler on NIS2 and the Austrian implementing law, organised and hosted by Sonja Marschall from Lexis Nexis Austria .
My over all impression was, again, that the role of the authority (and therefore the ministry for the interior) will be crucial, it will be very interesting to see whether and how they will be able to recruit the necessary expertise and that this is, above all, a brilliant business case for IT security consultants, auditors etc.
The venue was new and interesting to me: A fully and very well equipped streaming studio in Alser Straße - DS8 – Das Studio im Achten. I was very impressed by the technical equipment and by the friendliness and professionalism of the staff.
Florian Möslein
Prof. Dr. Florian Möslein was in #arsboni and we had a very interesting conversation about legal methodology, legal education and legal research in times of AI and LLMs.
AI Day
The Austrian Lawyers Association (Österreichischer Rechtsanwaltskammertag, OERAK) held its first AI Law Day in Museumsquartier. This was a huge event with several hundreds of attorneys participating - probably the most critical audience one can have. I had the privilege to speak and was therefore sitting first row, seeing the speakers - among them OERAK president Dr. Armenak H. Utudijan - from very close.
I focused - apart from AIA and Digital Omnibus - on OpenClaw, Anthropic and this crazy story about the agent-driven hack of McKinsey's AI system.
Prospect
LLP
On Tuesday, March 24th, at 19.00 the 26th episode of "Recht neugierig" will be streamed.
Graduation Ceremony
On Wednesday at 14.00 CET I will be the promotor (the person reading the formula and presenting the candidates) at one of our official graduation ceremonies ("Sponsionsfeier") in UNIVIE's Main Ceremonial Hall (Grosser Festsaal). That's the only occasion to wear a gown in Vienna and it's always a wonderful event as everybody is happy, proud, relaxed and relieved - in particular all the mamas, papas, grandparents and the rest of the family.
The events are live-streamed, so will be this one.
UNIVIE Summer School
It's the right moment to make summer plans.
I have a suggestion:
UNIVIE's summer school in Strobl/Wolfgangsee is currently accepting applications, including scholarship applications. This year, it will take place from July 11 to August 8, 2026. The four-week program offers high-level European studies courses and German language courses.
I was there as a student in 1988 and have been participating and teaching there for the last 18 years and it's, trust me, the perfect place to be in summer. Students from all over the world have been drawn to the program. The campus is located directly on the shore of Lake Wolfgang, one of Austria's most popular lakes in the picturesque Salzkammergut region. And the faculty consists of some of the brightest and nicest people I know.
Here are just a few campus impressions.
Look and Feel
Franz Kafka
Again, and always, Kafka. This time I am reading a biography focusing on his relationship to writing:
As (almost) always, recommended by and bought in Buchhandlung Riedl.
Here's a video with the author, Rüdiger Safranski, about the book:
Art, Media and Fundamental Rights
Dr. Maria Windhager did a very relevant interview with Fabian Burstein in the Podcast Bühneneingang on cases of sexual harassment and power abuse in Austrian creative industries - and their legal implications.
Maria Lassnig
ORF ON has the very impressive (and very slow) film biography of Maria Lassnig "Mit einem Tiger schlafen":
I appreciated, in particular, Birgit Minichmayr's performance, playing Lassnig's different age phases without age-changing make up.
Have a wonderful week and take care of yourself!
Kind regards
Nikolaus (Forgó)
