Volume 1, Issue 1

Insurance companies have always been at the forefront of developments in the processing of large volumes of data. This paper investigates in a comparative perspective the implications of the increasing reliance by insurers on automated quantification, examining developments of insurance law and technology in continental Europe, the common law (particularly the United States), and mainland China. The paper sheds light on the challenges brought by automated quantification in digital insurance, reviews the regulatory options that may address such challenges and inquires into the regulatory approaches pursued in different regions of the world. The comparative analysis of the strategies pursued will show that, when thinking about regulatory options for digital insurance, it is important to keep in mind that the shift to automated quantification, although global, raises different risks and opportunities depending on the contexts and the legal frameworks in which it takes place. The variance of contexts and legal frameworks explains why the impact of automated quantification in insurance is for the time being strong in the common law world, present but less intrusive in China, and proceeding at an even slower pace in continental Europe.

The regulations of generative AI, typified by ChatGPT and Sora, have become one of the most influential alternative technological imaginaries. Developed by states and civil society groups, such regulations are triggering a broad range of social actors seeking to nominalize the AI-related behavior. Against this backdrop, this study starts with interrogating the semiotic character of generative AI. Do these regulations support the AI futures, or do they involve a mere change in the social actors who benefit from the technological status quo? To answer this question, this study examines the rhetoric and realization of AI regulations by the European Union and the United States. The findings reveal a degree of AI regulatory alignment between the European Union and the United States, but these two jurisdictions also highlight and predict some structural challenges. Drawing upon the concept of panopticism by Foucault, the study explores the foundational origins of challenges by dissecting the (in)visibility of AI power. It underscores the necessity of regulating the power of the unseen and proposes a synthetic generative AI regulatory framework. We finally conclude that the integrity of sociosemiotics and panopticism provides a productive and paramount framework for understanding the powerful new capacities of AI-related regulations.

As a distributed ledger technology (DLT) application, cryptocurrency has impacted the current financial legal relationship, and its regulation is becoming increasingly important. Some international organizations and countries have ratified laws and regulations concerning cryptocurrency. However, the supervision and regulation of cryptocurrency in China are still encountered some problems, such as consumer protection, the opposition between the global asset flow and the supervision of a single sovereign state, and the difficulty in determining the subject of legal responsibility. To seek solutions to these problems in China, the primary task is to define the legal attribute of cryptocurrency, to balance blockchain innovation and financial risk. At the same time, the regulatory sandbox can be used to regulate blockchain-based cryptocurrency. Among others, the core regulatory measures are establishing the technical standard access system, financing audit registration system, and investor suitability management system of blockchain financial enterprises.

This paper explores the implications of the digital advancements on patient empowerment and the role of healthcare professionals. It examines the challenges and opportunities presented by this digital shift, including data privacy concerns, the need for continuous technological adaptation, and the potential for increased healthcare accessibility. The paper underscores the critical importance of legal and ethical considerations in shaping a sustainable and equitable digital healthcare landscape. Through this exploration, the paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the ongoing digital revolution in French healthcare and its broader implications for the global healthcare sector.

This article presents an examination of the unified efforts by China’s central authorities and the judiciary in the crackdown on crypto mining within the country. It discusses the environmental ramifications of crypto mining and traces its development in China, highlighting the resource-intensive nature of the process. Crypto mining risks China’s national objectives of promoting high-quality economic and social development, as well as industrial optimisation, energy conservation and emissions reduction. The central government’s commitment to climate goals and ecological civilisation, coupled with the perceived minimal economic benefits and substantial environmental damage caused by crypto mining, led to the issuance of the Notice on Rectifying Mining Activities of Virtual Currencies in September 2021. This article discusses the implications of the Notice and how it has been implemented at both national and local levels by the administrative authorities. With reference to typical cases, it examines how the judiciary in delivering judgments has kept in line with the spirit of the Notice by analysing mining-related civil disputes as they arise in courts and reflects on the interplay of legal and administrative measures in shaping a sustainable and environmentally conscious approach to emerging technologies in China and beyond.

The present debate about the governance of artificial intelligence (AI) is dominated by a narrative of a “global race toward the regulation of AI.” Such a narrative bears serious dangers and should be rephrased as the “race toward the global regulation of AI” to adequately address the cross-cutting, cross-boundary, and cross-cultural nature of these technologies. If the debate about the future regulation of AI is to efficiently address the serious dangers and potentially existential risks related to AI, then it should be tied to other global governance issues, such as those summarized by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this endeavor to be successful, the substantive questions of regulation must be combined with efforts to reform the present international system with a view to establishing a more efficient and coherent global institutional framework. It is important to be mindful of past obstacles in the reform of existing international organizations and to avoid the need for another global cataclysm to trigger institutional reform; thus, the article follows the idea that cognitive change leads to the transformation of international organizations. As both a technology aimed to replicate the human mind and an example of an important linguistic trend of a rise in essentially oxymoronic concepts, AI is deemed to provide the right point of departure to ponder future modes of human cognition – modes that reflect Einstein’s description of a world as a “four-dimensional space – time continuum,” – which may help to imagine the contours of a future global institutional framework.

The controversy over copyright theory in the metaverse scenario mainly arises from the issue of copyrightability of metaverse products. Metaverse products have initially reached the standard of originality and formally conform to the dichotomy of thought and expression, however, the incompatibility of object types has led to controversy over its copyright theory. In addition, the three types of disputes and difficulties based on the “behavior” element: original acquisition and derivative acquisition, original products and derivative products, and public domain and private domain, are not just copyright disputes in the metaverse scene, but also a difficult problem that the copyright system cannot reconcile. In this regard, this article draws on overseas experience, introduces the theory of copyright expansion, and combines the needs of China’s judicial practice and China’s national conditions, trying to solve the copyright legal issues in the metaverse scenario one by one through the “source of communication” theory, behavior restriction theory and interest game theory, and propose China’s response to the problems caused by the generalization of digital technology from the three dimensions of originality standard identification, object classification, and rights restriction rules.

The Climate Change Convention, together with developed and developing countries, is taking measures to be more effective in combating climate change with the gear of modern methods and innovations. However, the technology mechanism has launched a series of initiatives aimed at exploring the potential of artificial intelligence to accelerate and scale up groundbreaking climate solutions, both in mitigation and adaptation efforts. To address the research questions, a comprehensive literature review is conducted to identify existing gaps and establish a foundational understanding of the legal and cybersecurity landscape in climate technology transfer. Different countries and organizations may adopt disparate cybersecurity measures, making it challenging to ensure a cohesive and standardized approach to safeguarding climate-related technologies. This fragmentation could result in inefficiencies, confusion, and a lack of interoperability. The urgency for a holistic and adaptive approach at the confluence of environmental law and digital security, the evolution of legal frameworks, the fortification of cybersecurity measures, and the ethical dimensions of technology transfer are integral components of a resilient foundation for a sustainable and secure future in climate technology exchange.