NSFW

I am still in my Florian Paul und die Kapelle der letzten Hoffnung post concert phase so that one of their songs played in Vienna is my NSFW this time.

Paul anounced the song at the concert stating that the song's lyrics

We may be standing on the brink—with our backs against the wall
But shoulder to shoulder—and hand in hand

(Wir steh'n vielleicht am Abgrund - mit dem Rücken zur Wand
Aber Schulter an Schulter - und Hand in Hand)

would not only fit as a personal statement in a love story, but also as a description of Europe's current over all situation.

It's remarkable how profoundly the pressure on Europe has become part of everyday awareness of so many people in so many constellations - from law to politics to leisure.

YouTube has a Live Bootleg of the song.

The song was on the shortlist of the Rio Reiser song price 2021 and finished second, as I learned (never heard about the price, but Rio is always great and it's interesting to read what Paul says about Reiser.)

Retrospect

Austrian Commission for Research Integrity

The Commission (OEAWI) held a meeting in Vienna.

Most of the meeting's agenda points as such are - obviously - confidential, but I am happy to share the most recent developments in a case OEAWI was involved in: The study indicating positive outcomes of homeopathy in stage IV lung cancer was - finally - retracted.

Der Standard reports about the case. Profil has a follow up on the (yet rather small) consequences of the retraction. Informationsnetzwerk Homöopathie has a very critical assessment of the journal's role in the process.

#arsboni

Online Scams from South East Asia have become a more and more important threat for Europe and Europeans. The Economist has a story and a Podcast (Paywall) on this, ZDF heute has a long story as well, and Krautreporter informs about the matter in a morning briefing.

Dr. Anil Kumar Maurya, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, who is currently a guest researcher at the department so that I could interview him in the laundry, kindly provided further insights in the #arsboni #laundry .

Paul Marouschek, deputy director of Austria's Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (Bundeskriminalamt), spoke with me on a similar - more general - topic: Cybercrime.

This year's Data Protection Moot Court had its finals on Monday with Dublin City University versus University of Göttingen/Masaryk University Brno.

And last not least the LLP Vienna project had a conversation with our dean for students, Prof. Dr. Christian Koller.

Prospect

#arsboni

Two more episodes to come in 2025. On December 23rd at 09.00 CET I will discuss Legal Tech and AI in today's lawyering with colleages from Schoenherr - on of Vienna's big law firms: Marguerita Sedrati-Müller (Counsel/ Director People & Culture) and Andrei Salajan (Director Legal Tech & Innovation).

And on December 28, at 19.00 (yes, indeed, on Sunday evening), we will have one final episode of Recht neugierig in 2025.

Team ID Breakfast Lecture

The new year will come quickly and will bring lots of higlights. Dr. Anil Kumar Maurya (see above) will provide one of the first exciting events in 2026. He kindly agreed to speak on January 12th in a breakfast lecture.

He will analyse the latest and most significant developments in how major online platforms — such as Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and Google — are increasingly required to moderate user-generated content within two major regulatory regimes: India and the European Union.

Free entry, registration required, no stream.

AIA-MOOC

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are a well established instrument of (legal) education instrument and iMoox is (probably) the leading platform for them (in Austria). I have three courses there already.

• one on GDPR
• one on IP in research and
• one on IP in teaching

The content is available for free.

I am currently in the proccess of working on another one. This time, the AI act with its implications for universities will be the topic. This is a - very nice and smooth - cooperation between University of Vienna and University of Applied Sciences Campus Wien. I was very impressed by the professionality and friendliness of my colleagues there - and also by their very well equipped studio.

We did the filming this week, cutting, editing etc. will follow so that the product will (hopefully) be available in the first half of 2026.

Look and Feel

Dr. Bohl-Solo

Paulus Bohl (Dr. Bohl) gave a 2 full hours presentation in tha law school's biggest auditorium - legendary U 10, organised and hosted by Recht entspannt.

He's a faculty alumnus and there were some nice jokes about his time as a student. It was very funny and impressive, 2 hours stand up comedy without breaks and no support - very well done. If you missed it, there are further dates in 2026 (but not in Juridicum, so far, I believe).

Here's one of his videos about student life at Juridicum

Ivan Krastev

Europe's challenges (or decline) that I was mentioning in the NSFW-section was also the main topic in the yearly discussion with Ivan Krastev an Mirjana Tomić in Concordia on Tuesday.

Krastev stressed the particular importance of the upcoming elections in Hungary as one of the deciseve events of 2026, going beyond national borders in its borders. Die Presse covers his speech (Paywall,. though), Falter has an interview (Paywall) with him.

The "real thing" is on YouTube, thanks to Concordia and really worth being watched.

Christmas

Christmas is coming with lots of food and lots of parties. We had a beautiful one in the department with lots of food and Powerpoint Karaoke and Wichteln.

It was one of those moments not to forget when times get rough. This is the most talented, nicest and innovative group of people I ever had the honor to work with. It's such an unbelievable and undeserved privilege to be part of this.

The law school celebrated as well.

Daisy

is in serious protest against the weather

but looks forward to the upcoming holiday season.

Have a wonderful week!

Kind regards

Nikolaus (Forgó)