The talk highlights current trends and frictions in this emerging field of law. At the beginning, different sources of European media law will be explained. The legal regimes that create tensions are the common) traditions in the European states, the (economic) law of European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights. Further tensions occur due to new kinds of factual and legal developments. The first group of problems can be called “media as content”. Under this heading the talk highlights, among other things, the influence of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on personality rights. The influence of the constitutionalisation of EU law is also touched upon. The second category of problems is “media as (special) products”. Here, the talk addresses media convergence that, based on digitization, creates new problems of regulation. What services can be defined as broadcasting (highly regulated) and what is (online) press that traditionally has a low regulatory density? Furthermore, the talk covers the relation of public broadcasting and private media. What should public broadcasters be allowed in the internet? What is the impact of the EU state aid rules in this area? In addition, issues of media merger control will be addressed. Is the national practice sufficient or do we need an EU merger control? As an actual topic the talk addresses conflicts of laws. Do we need a special provision in the Rome II Regulation? A last regulatory issue is access, in particular, the question of net neutrality. The talk is rounded off with several observations and recommendations on regulation and coordination of the different levels and asynchronous trends in European media law.
Hannes Rösler is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg and also a lecturer at the University of Hamburg. He has published numerous articles on German and European private and public law in several languages focusing in particular on EU consumer law, media law and the European Court of Justice. Prior to entering the Max Planck Institute, he was a Research Assistant at the Institute for Comparative Law in Marburg and a law clerk in Frankfurt am Main. He received a doctorate in 2003 from Marburg University, where here graduated in 1998, following one year of studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). In 2004 he received a Master from Harvard Law School. Rösler has held visiting positions at the Oxford University, New York University, University of Cambridge as well as, i.a., universities in Italy, Turkey and Japan.