Alexandra Lorch // The role of the legal system in value creation from data

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Research Associate

Name

Alexandra Lorch

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Contact Information

Organization Name

Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden

Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden

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Z21, Room 302 Zellescher Weg 21

01217 Dresden

Rooms 302, 302A, 302B, 010

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TUD Dresden University of Technology Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden

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Doctoral project

Working title: Regulating Innovation in data-trained AI-systems

Subject area: Legal studies
Supervisor: JProf. Dr. Katharina Kaesling, LL.M., Prof. Dr. Lars Hornuf

Abstract

“Data” is collected, stored, processed, and disseminated. Although it was long considered a “given,” the European Commission now sees it as something that needs regulation. In its European Data Strategy, the Commission emphasizes that access to and use of data are crucial for innovation and growth. Based on this, the doctoral project analyses how the European legislator controls data flows with regard to the training of AI systems. Will the EU become an incubator for data-trained AI systems through European legislation?

To clarify the role of the legal system in value creation from data, the European Data Act and AI Act will be examined for their balance between data protection and data use. How do you ensure that legislation is designed to create the best possible conditions for innovation to flourish? A classification of European regulatory approaches in a global context, including regulatory regimes in Common Law and from the Asian cultural sphere, should help answer this question.

The aim is to answer the question of how the European regulatory mechanism can enable a balance between data protection and agile data utilisation for AI systems. The project therefore ideally fits into the theme of the Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden by examining the socio-technological interaction of “Worlds↔Law↔Data.”

Curriculum Vitae

Academic Experience 

• "Economic Concepts of Innovation from a Legal Perspective", interdisciplinary impulse in the "Creativity and Innovation in IP Law" seminar as pasrt of the LL.M in Intellectual Property Law and Data Law, Technical University of Dresden, January 24, 2026.
• "AI Regulation and other legal frameworks of EU Digital Law", lecture units delivered within the Master’s Programme "Digital Humanities", Technical University of Dresden, summer semester 2025.
• "Legal issues of AI and data regulation and innvoation", presentation as part of the Digital Law Research Colloquium Geneva, organized by the Digital Law Center Faculty of Law, University of Geneva, Fondation Hardt, June 18, 2025.
• "AI sandboxes according to the European AI Regulation", presentation as part of the doctoral workshop on the DSA of the IRDT (Institute for Law and Digitalization), November 29, Trier, 2024.
• "Women in Legal Tech and AI Speed Dating", speaker in the Event of Clifford Chance and eLegal, Frankfurt, September 10, 2024.
• "Innovation and EU Regulation: The Role of the EU Legislator in data-driven Value Creation", Poster Presentation at the International Joint Conference "Perspectives from In- and Outside the New EU Patent System", Charles University Prague / Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, June 19, 2024.

Publications

"Is the data revolution starting in Europe? A European Legal Framework for AI Training Data" CTRL Magazine, 02/2024, 8. Edition, p. 7-16 (October 2024)

Other

She is a member of the Commission "Law of the Digital Society" at the German Women Lawyers Association (djb) (2025–2027) and in the editorial team of the LegalTech Blog.