Blocher new chairman of the Society for Law and Informatics

Blocher studied law and business informatics at the University of Vienna. He received his doctorate from the University of Vienna (Dr. iur.) and from the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Dr. rer. soc. oec.), where he worked as a university assistant from 1985 and as an assistant professor from 1994 to 2006. Since 2006, he has headed the department of "Civil Law, Corporate Law and Information Law" at the Institute of Business Law (Department of Economics) at the University of Kassel.

Blocher, who holds a doctorate in law and business informatics, found his non-university thematic home in DGRI early on. In 1996, for example, he organized the "DGRI Three-Country Meeting on IT Law" at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, which was the first academic conference in the German-speaking world devoted to legal issues of e-commerce. "DGRI is the most important independent professional association for IT law in the German-speaking world and is considered a think tank in this field," says Blocher.

In his new role, Blocher intends to focus on anchoring DGRI even more firmly in his native Austria and in Switzerland and, above all, on intensifying the work of young professionals in the D-A-CH region. "Students of business law courses at the University of Kassel and many academic staff and doctoral students also deal with IT law issues. Especially for young IT lawyers, DGRI offers an attractive perspective," emphasizes Blocher. In addition, as chairman of the DGRI board, he would like to devote his time to current information law issues such as consumer protection in e-commerce and legal issues related to DLT and blockchain, as well as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. DGRI's expert committees continuously cover these and other important topics in the IT law spectrum and, among other things, prepare opinions on relevant legislative proposals.

Blocher is also a spokesperson for the Blockchain-Center.eu at the University of Kassel, a spokesperson for the research focus "Digital Transformation" at the Department of Economics (also University of Kassel), and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Digital Transformation of the AOK Nord-Ost.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Dr. Walter Blocher
Nora-Platiel-Str. 4
34127 Kassel
Tel.: 0561 804-2186
E-mail: blocher@uni-kassel.de