Schafer comes from Germany but lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. His research focuses on the intersection of law, philosophy, cognitive science, and IT, exploring everything from the regulation of decentralized systems to the impact of generative AI on the legal profession. He made the most of his first visit to Brno, where he shared his knowledge and experience in two presentations.
As part of Masaryk University's Seminar Series, Schafer discussed the relationship between new EU regulations on digital space and decentralized systems based on blockchain technology. He also delivered one of the opening lectures at the Cyberspace conference, focusing on generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the legal profession.
In addition to law and technology, you also dealt with philosophy in your lectures. In addition to law, you also studied logic and linguistics. How did you get into these fields and how do they intersect with your work?
I grew up in a family of lawyers, so I knew I didn't want to study law. I wanted to study philosophy or history and started with philosophy. I soon discovered that I was most interested in cognitive science and logic. In Munich, we had the opportunity to collaborate with mathematicians and cognitive scientists, and my supervisor told me that if I wanted to do theory of science and analyse natural languages, I needed to choose an applied field. Most of my friends chose physics or biology, but I realized that I would never be as good at those subjects, so I chose law.
So, you ended up coming back to it...
I started attending law classes to understand how lawyers work, but I did my first degree in philosophy, even though I was no longer sure if that was the right thing to do. I then spent six months at law school in Scotland and gradually realized that I really enjoyed it. So, I completed a law degree in Lancaster and started teaching. I was thrilled by teaching – I find it more enjoyable than doing pure research. I was very lucky to get a job in Edinburgh because even though I am German at heart, intellectually I definitely belong in Scotland, where I have been living for 30 years.
When did technology become the central theme of your work?
Abstract, computational thinking and the metaphor of the computer actually came first – in the context of philosophy and cognitive science. I was fascinated by the idea that the human brain could be understood as a computer. This perspective led me to questions about how technology is changing the law and how the law responds to technological innovations. Initially, I considered law merely as an area for the application of cognitive science, but I increasingly realized that what truly drives me is the legal side of things.
So, you’ve managed to combine several different fields in your work.
Philosophy and logic enable me to analyse the structure of arguments, while technology allows me to see their practical implications.
In your lecture as part of the MUNI Seminar Series, you focused on issues related to the regulation of the digital economy. Can you summarize the main ideas of your presentation?
I mainly tried to reflect on the last 30 years I spent in Edinburgh. At the very beginning, we established a centre for technology and intellectual property law because we realized that there was a lack of comprehensive knowledge andno group of people who saw themselves as IT lawyers. The centre’s aim was to bring together people from different legal fields and computer scientists. At that time, there was a lot of fear about new technologies, but also a lot of optimism about the opportunities they could bring. When I see young people today talking about Web3, blockchain, AI, and the decentralization of technology and services in general, I have to tell them that this is exactly how we felt in the 1990s when the Internet began to spread.
So, what advice would you give them today? How should they approach such technologies?
Be a little more cautious – there will be great opportunities and challenges, but it probably won’t be as bad as you think. It’s important to know that technologies are not a panacea and require responsible rules to be put in place.
Where do you see the greatest opportunities for the legal sector in technology as it currently stands?
The greatest opportunities are for societies and countries where there is a reasonable distrust of authority and centralized systems but where there is still sufficient social cohesion. Technology can facilitate horizontal interactions within society without the need to rely on state authorities. For example, in the countries of Western Europe, where we can still trust the authorities, we can still use decentralized methods to ensure authenticity of digital files such as photos. There are major challenges in the field of journalism, as the media is increasingly relying on videos and photos from the public. Journalists, however, need to be sure that the material is authentic and has not been manipulated or generated by AI. There is also the question of how to fairly reward or recognize members of the public who contribute to journalism in this way.
Of course, new technologies are also widely abused, and we often hear complaints that the law is struggling to catch up with technological developments. How do you see this?
I hear such words often, and they always anger me. I don’t think it’s true. After all, when a legal dispute arises, a court cannot say, “There is no law, so we can only sit idly by.” There is always an answer; you just have to look for the closest possible analogy or precedent, even in the past. In the common law system in which I have been living for the last few decades, this can mean you have to find analogies from the Middle Ages or the Roman Empire. Human desires are constant; only their manifestations differ as new technologies emerge. Once you look beyond the technology, you will see the same human desires, suffering, aspirations...
Nevertheless, I wonder if it is possible to limit the misuse of technology in some way.
I understand this need, and one of the reasons I work in my field is because I believe that technology can help us. But we cannot get rid of human nature; there will always be those who use their intelligence to exploit systems for their own benefit. Technology has brought extraordinary wealth and power to some people, and we are increasingly witnessing the rule of billionaires, but even they often resort to traditional political means to get elected to high office, for example. So, I think that if we manage to set up the democratic process correctly and use technology to improve voting and public participation, we will be able to limit the number of people who try to bring chaos to society.
Let’s go back to your visit to Brno. Was this your first time here?
Yes, unfortunately. I always wanted to come because I know Radim Polčák and his work here. The way you collaborate with computer scientists here is exactly what we need; it is absolutely groundbreaking.