Law without Borders
ARE LOBBYISTS THE LAWMAKERS OF THE FUTURE?
 HOW AMASSING INFORMATION CAN INVADE OUR PRIVACY
 FIFA IS COMING, LET’S CHANGE THE LAW

Alpbach
News Magazine
Legal Symposium
20. - 21.08.2014
www.alpbach.org
@forumalpbach  #efa14
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luiza puiu
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PUBLISHER: Europäisches Forum Alpbach, Alpbach Media Academy, A-6236 Alpbach in Tirol, Tel. 05336/600-702,
mediaacademy@alpbach.org EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Michael Fleischhacker, Anke Plättner EDITORS: Silvia Amaro, Conor Campbell,
Luigi Caputo, Maria Danmark Nielsen, Oleksandr Guzenko, Εlvira Krithari, Slobodan Maricic, Natalie Marsh, Gesbeen Mohammad,
Stella Nikolova, Katrin Nussmayr, Manuela Ringbauer, Jan Schacht, Aida Skirmantaite, Maialen Torres, Elena Vershinina
MANAGING EDITOR: Georg Renner SUB-EDITORS: Mark Meredith, Aida Skirmantaite LAYOUT: Willem van der Vlugt
VIDEO: Lukas Wagner PHOTO: Philipp Naderer, Luiza Puiu PRODUCTION: Christian Steinbrecher MOTHER HEN: Marianne Peters
Supporting Partners
Main Partner
Editorial
This year’s Legal Symposium taunts us to find answers to the
most controversial topics in law at the crossroads. At its core,
law is supposed to give guidance for societies’ and states’ behaviour – which gets complicated in our multicultural, multi-ethnic,
multi-millionaire yet mega-poor world.
Jan Schacht
Germany
Those with money who scream loudest usually win. Don’t wellheeled lobbyists act as future law-makers who decide legislation before it actually happens? Dane Maria Nielsen knows
where ‘lobbying’ originally started and how it applies today
(pages 4 and 5).
Have we already given up and accepted that some big companies collect all our data? Just yesterday, I think I sold my soul,
location, body temperature and my most secretive thoughts
when I browsed the net. Elvira Krithari from Greece questions
Alpbach participants’ privacy concerns and if they really know
what the term “Big Data” means to them as a legal entity (page
10).
The world is also trying to find a legal position on unmanned,
remotely controlled, “occasionally” armed flying objects: the
game of drones. So far many countries are trying to figure out
their position. The military usually wins and citizens are the last
ones to decide on the nation’s legal position. On page 7, Ireland’s
Conor Campbell explores current opinions in the airy debate.
The beautiful game preoccupies most Europeans every four
years when FIFA wants us to believe that the games will do
wonders for the economy of the host country. Russian Alena
Vershinina shows how FIFA plans to overrule her national laws.
More on page 11.
Sometimes we don’t want to take our laws too seriously. Austrian Katrin Nussmayr attends a Personal Corruption Coaching
session and tells us eight ways to master the art of the backhander (page 6).
You be the judge,
Jan Schacht
ALPBACH
NEWS MAGAZINE
the role of lobbying in eu
apa picture desk, JULIEN WARNAND
The leading edge
of schmoozing
As EU integration has advanced, so has lobbying.
Brussels has become the hottest spot for influencing law-makers after Washington DC. How
did it become such a big industry in Brussels?
And do they really have a say?
 A voting
session at the
European
Parliament in
Brussels. 751
great targets
for lobbyists
Written by Maria Danmark
L
obbying in Brussels has
a tarnished reputation.
So much so that lobbyists don’t call themselves
that anymore. Instead,
they add ‘consultant’ or
‘manager of public affairs’ to their
business cards. Lobbying is often seen
as shady business that comes with a
lot of fancy dinners where money
under the table is part of the menu.
In 2012, the European Commissioner of Health, John Dalli resigned due
to a series of accusations that he was
aware of attempts to recover bribes in
his name. Allegedly, a friend of Dalli
asked a Swedish snuff manufacturer
to pay 60 million euros; in return the
Commissioner would lift the ban on
snuff sales in the rest of the EU.
Scandals like this give lobbying an
even darker name, but the reputation
isn’t fair, says Doris Dialer, a lecturer
4
at the University of Innsbruck and a
parliamentary assistant for the MEP,
Michel Reimon (Group of the Greens/
European Free Alliance). This year
she publishes a book: Lobbying in the
European Union: Between professionalisation and regulation.
“You have to distinguish between
corruption and lobbying. Lobbying
isn’t corruption. It is a decent work,
A Definition of Lobbying:
The word lobbying refers to people who would stand
in the lobbies outside legislatures in the United States
to talk to and try to influence law-makers as they
emerged. It was used for the first time in 1808.
Websters Dictionary has this definition of lobby:
an organised group of people who work together to
influence government decisions that relate to a
particular industry, issue, etc.
where people get paid to promote
interests,” Dialer says.
billion-euro industry
Lobbying is far from a new phenomenon in Brussels. Lobbyists have been
there since the early days of the EU,
says Dialer, who explains that EUlobbying actually comes from the UK.
But it wasn’t so interesting to begin
with. The billion-euro industry – as
we know it today – made its first steps
right after the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties (1992 and 1997), when
the impact of the EU legislation
increased.
“Lobbying changed from mainly
corporate lobbying with chambers of
commerce, associations and unions to
having business lobbying, where big
companies set up an office in Brussels
to defend their own interest,” she says.
According to Corporate Europe
Observatory, an organisation that
works for greater transparency, there
are at least 30,000 lobbyists in Brussels.
“It is hard to say how much influence they have because we are surrounded by them every day. You can’t
know how much they influenced you,
when you watched the news,” Dialer
says.
LEGAL SYMPOSIUM
Doris Dialer:
Future trends
The newest sector in Brussels is
the ICT (information and communication technology) industry from the US.
Dialer explains that the European
Parliament became a huge interest for
the US because of the question about
data protection. “Companies such as
Microsoft and Google weren’t present
in Brussels, until a few years ago, but
now you find the whole Silicon Valley
in Brussels as well,” Dialer says and
adds: “Washington DC is the main
player, but Brussels is not very far
behind. With the next step of integration, which I’m sure that we will have,
then there will be even more lobbying
in Brussels.”
aggressive strategies
In peak time, the MEP, who Dialer
works for, receives around 50 lobbying mails a day. Besides that, there are
endless telephone calls and meetings.
Dialer says that the lobbying strategies have also changed.
“I previously worked for an MEP in
the transport committee. About 8-9
years ago, we worked on fair pricing
in the air transport. Ryanair was rather pissed off, because they wanted to
keep the rules as they were. At that
time, they even started to follow us to
the toilets,” she says and mentions
other cases, where farmers have
blocked the streets in Brussels or scattered milk everywhere, to protest
higher milk prices.
“In the last years there has been a
growth in aggressive lobbying. You
 Austrian
Doris Dialer, a
lecturer at the
University of
Innsbruck and
Accredited
Parliamentary
Assistant at the
European
Parliament with
strong views on
lobbying, will
talk about her
own career
success story in
a breakout
session during
the Political
Symposium on
Monday, 25.08.
at Hauptschule.
can say that the lobbying in Brussels
has become Americanised. When a lot
of money is involved, that’s when
aggressive lobbying starts,” she says.
“But the lobbyist expertise is a fundamental part of the European legislative process. The attempted influence should not be condemned in
itself. I’m glad that I get proposition
papers from lobbyists, because then I
know what the interests are. Where
else would I get the information?”
Instead, she stresses that the real
problem lies in the lack of transparency. In the US, law regulates the lobbying sector, but in the EU there is no
legislation to do so. Although the EU
has a codex and a lobbying register at
the Parliament and Commission,
according to Dialer it is too weak,
 The number of lobbyists will
increase and there will be more
influential players – besides the
few today – but the gap between
those who can afford having an
office in Brussels and those who
can’t will be bigger. If you can
afford an office, you will be more
effective.
 New sectors will become more
active in lobbying, for example,
the education industry. Because
when a sector is running out of
money and the national level can’t
subsidise it anymore, then you
will see a rise of lobbying in Brussels.
 In the US think-tanks is a big
industry. They don’t influence law
making but opinions. In a way, it is
also lobbying and, in the next
years, the think-tank’s influence
in Brussels will also increase.
 Lobbying will find more aggressive ways to get its message out
– quicker and clearer.
 More individual lobbying,
where citizens will try to find
ways to get their interests heard.
They want to get involved, while
the EU laws apply to them in their
daily life.
since the codex is merely for guideline purposes and the register is not
mandatory. Meanwhile, the Parliament proposed to make the register
binding in 2017. In Dialer’s opinion
there should be sanctions if a lobbyist
crosses the line.
“You need a law, which should say
what is allowed and what is corruption. Considering – the few, but rather
big scandals – it should be realistic to
have it in the future.” 
apa picture desk, oliver hoslet
the real
problem lies
in the lack of
transparency
5
ALPBACH
NEWS MAGAZINE
8
calling all fraudsters:
ways to
master
corruption
keep your
dignity, even
if you acted
unmorally
piece is hard to estimate. Just sell it
again for a higher value, backdate the
first receipt – here is your official
income.
electronic
6avoid
transactions
“Corruption is no one night stand, it is a marriage,” says
Julia Draxler, who, together with Roland Spitzlinger, runs
Vienna's “Institute of Applied Corruption”. Instead of condemning corruption, they take an ironic approach and
teach people how to behave like their corrupt role-models. In Alpbach, they gave a short crash-course.
Draxler and Spitzlinger suggest performing corrupt payments in cash or
Bitcoins. When it comes to delivering
money, Spitzlinger appeals to people’s
dignity: “Take a good suitcase, not a
plastic bag.” Draxler adds: “But don’t
underestimate the weight – one million euros can weigh 15 kilos.” If it gets
too heavy, take a trolley.
Written by Katrin Nussmayr
your social
1mind
surroundings
“We live in a very cold environment”,
says Spitzlinger. His recommendation: Just party and concentrate on
the receptions. Even better than
talking: “Create common experiences.
The more extreme, the better.” The
experts name table soccer at Jakober
as well as sexual encounters.
2
leave
an impression
Hand out business cards with your
picture on it. If you have a stupid or
very common name, just change it.
First names like Charlotte or Patricia
for women and Leopold or Alexander
for men, combined with a last name
that sounds royal or French-diplomatic are overly represented in management floors, the experts say. This will
more likely put you into powerful
positions and give you more ways to
abuse your power.
doing so: “In order to be legally safe,
set up a consulting contract. As a
return service, a simple concept
should suffice. Eight pages of an
expert assessment are worth up to six
million euros.” They state that a judge
from Innsbruck, who was attending
the Legal Symposium, assured them
that this is a good method.
As an alternative, they recommend
money laundering in order to be able
to explain to the tax office where the
money is from. Spitzlinger recommends going into the art market and
buying a piece of art at fairs like the
Art Basel – preferably from a young,
unknown artist where the value of the
6
luiza puiu
“You can also buy a degree,” says Draxler. She recommends degrees in Law
or Economics. Bosnia has some good
private universities that offer quick
PhDs, she says. “The Austrian police
president did his Master’s in eight
weeks. Very demanding.”
If you take money for corrupt reasons,
and you want to be safe, tax it. Draxler
and Spitzlinger offer different ways of
Even when you get caught or get into
trouble, don’t reveal your friends. This
will make you appear trustworthy. In
court, the experts recommend the
phrase “I have no perception to this”
as a categorical answer.
5launder
the money
panic if you
3 don’t
fail your studies
within
4 stay
legal boundaries
7 Stay
professional
 Corruption
experts Spitzlinger and
Draxler tell
reporter Katrin
Nussmayr how
to boost her
journalism
career
is always
8 there
a second chance
“Keep your dignity, even if you acted
unmorally from society’s point of
view.” And don’t forget: There is the
“revolving door effect”. Change into
another industry or move abroad. “Go
to America to some think-tank and
wait until the furore dies down.” 
LEGAL SYMPOSIUM
Targeting the terrorists
apa picture desk, nasa langley
drones and international law
Are the US drones strikes in Pakistan targeted
against suspected terrorists within the bounds
of international law? Yes and no – two scholars
disagree in a debate at the European
Forum Alpbach on Thursday.
Written by Conor Campbell
M
ichael
W.
Lewis, former
Topgun graduate and Professor of Law
at Ohio Northern University
believes that it is within bounds; while
Professor Manfred Nowak, the Austrian human rights lawyer, disagrees.
The question of whether the targets of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) strikes can be considered belligerents in an international conflict, and
whether the “War on Terror” resulted
in the application of the law of war,
dominated the discussion. Professor
Lewis argued that if the European definition of warfare – that of military
action between recognised armies
and/or states - were to be followed by
the United States, effective combating
of terrorist forces based outside of
immediate US jurisdiction would be
impossible. The example of ISIS (the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) in Iraq
supported his argument, given their
ability to flee to Syria with their armaments – out of the direct American
military action zone in Iraq.
The use of the UN Security Council
to provide military force in extraterritorial regions was suggested, but the
limitations of such an approach were
 The “Greased
Lightning”
drone was
recently
presented at a
NASA event.
It combines
features of a
plane and a
helicopter
extolled by Professor Lewis. “I guarantee you that the UN Security Council
would not approve such a move,” Lewis pointed out, as “Russia do not like
the United States right now for a lot of
reasons, and China is generally very
hesitant to do this sort of thing as
well.” Therefore, the only effective
method to combat terrorism was to
declare war on its perpetrators and to
strike them wherever the regional
government was not effective enough
to combat them.
compromises
Professor Nowak countered that if
these rules were brought to their full
conclusion, the United States could
launch drone strikes anywhere. The
case of a terrorist residing in Alpbach
was raised, and whether the US government would be willing to compromise the territorial integrity of Austria in order to pursue the target. To
this, Lewis stated that the United
States did not launch strikes in states
drone strikes: most
serious human rights
violations in pakistan
where the national services were sufficient to apprehend the suspect without external assistance.
Nowak also claimed that terrorist
organisations were not belligerents in
a war, but organisations of extremely
serious crime, and therefore should be
apprehended under the same rules
that apply to law-keeping – such as
offering the ability to surrender and
attempting arrest prior to the deployment of lethal force. The disregarding
of these basic crime-fighting principles resulted in a violation of the subject’s fundamental human rights in a
non-wartime environment. Thus,
according to the Pakistan human
rights commission, drone strikes were
“the most serious human rights violations in quantity in Pakistan.” The possibility for high civilian casualties,
however, as well as the potential for
heavy military losses were presented
as deterrents for this interpretation.
In a discussion of the consequences
of drone strikes beyond the killing of
perceived enemies in non-combatant
states, Nowak suggested that the use of
these combative techniques resulted in
an actual boost to the terrorist organisations. “In the perception many people in the Islamic states,” he said, is that
it has encouraged “many people to join
al-Qaeda and other armed forces.” 
7
luiza puiu
ALPBACH
NEWS MAGAZINE
clemens
jabloner
Former President, Supreme Administrative Court, Vienna, speaking
about the main entities that influence law in the EU.
“Edward Snowden and Glenn
Greenwald are raising legal
questions concerning privacy that
we should have talked about long
before.”
8
philipp naderer
LEGAL SYMPOSIUM
irmgard griss
Speaker of the Senate, ELI – European
Law Institute; Former President,
Supreme Court of Justice, Vienna.
“Keep in mind that one shouldn’t
generalise that politicians will just
believe every lobbyist. You can’t
say that they are all greedy, most
of them have a general interest in
standing for common goals of
society.”
ferdinand
kirchhof
Professor of International Law and
Human Rights, University of Vienna;
Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on
Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment, Vienna.
“Many big transnational companies are now incorporating human
rights in their corporate social
responsibility regulations – but
this is voluntary. Once their
revenues are getting less, of
course, this is the first place where
they will cut their spending.”
luiza puiu
luiza puiu
manfred
nowak
Vice President and Chairman of the
First Senate, Federal Constitutional
Court of the Federal Republic of
Germany, Karlsruhe.
“Economic sectors are providing
the basic infrastructure for travel,
leisure, communications, banking
and more – but now the main goal
in these sectors is no longer
about how to contribute to society
but to get the best profit growth
rate year by year – it’s very onedimensional.”
9
ALPBACH
NEWS MAGAZINE
luiza puiu
What is
big data
and is it
a threat?
We asked the question in a short survey
we conducted among people at the
Alpbach Congress Centre during the
Legal Symposium.
Written by Elvira Krithari
A
typical reply was:
"I don’t really know,
I can only imagine.
Maybe loads of numbers and information
which are collected
somewhere.” Among the 30 answers
we received – most of them given by
students – big data, apart from being a
fancy term most of them had overheard before, lacks a clear definition.
Most of the responses were focused
on the methods that are used to mine
knowledge out of compact data clusters. All of them knew advanced computing is needed, but admitted that’s
all they knew.
Microsoft’s
former privacy
advisor and
data privacy
advocate
Caspar Bowden
thinks big data
is just a hype.
It’s easier to
trick people if
you repeat a
buzzword
rather than
saying what it
really is
the marketing aspect
These are quite reasonable answers,
considering where the IT business
aims, according to Caspar Bowden, a
data privacy advocate who spoke at
the law plenary session at the Alpbach Forum. “I think that big data is a
term of marketing hype by the IT
industry to try and sell new analytical
capabilities. In a sense that is a solution looking at problems”, he says. Little attention has been paid by our
interviewees to the term’s controversial aftermath impact on privacy. But
after all these slightly vague answers,
how would an expert describe big
data?
“I think I very much agree with an
analysis of big data that was written
by the economist Tim Hufford in the
Financial Times in March,” states
Bowden. “He sort of crystallised there
are four prepositions in the big data
manifesto. One is that big data can
give you uncannily accurate results;
secondly that it is possible to capture
10
every data point – you are not going to
miss any data; thirdly that you don’t
really need to worry about constructing theories or mathematical models
of a situation, in the sense that data
will speak for itself; and fourthly that
we don’t need to worry about causation whether some effect is being
driven by particular cause, it’s okay
just to look at mathematical correlations in the data, so that article gives a
very good demolition of all four of
those prepositions”.
insecure protection
 You can read
Tim Hufford’s
article “Big
data: are we
making a big
mistake?” in
the Financial
Times Magazine, which was
mentioned by
Caspar
Bowden, here:
About 30 people who answered
our question “What do you do for your
personal data’s protection online?”
replied with regret that they did nothing special. Strong passwords and limited audience for their posts in their
social networks seemed enough in
most cases, and revealed an interesting feature: Individuals worry about
their data to be abused by other individuals and less by the companies
which dominate the web. Are Europe’s
data protection laws enough to let the
users only think about the concern of
a good antivirus?
“The entire purpose of the structure of European data protection is to
try to persuade people that their data
is safe and protected and they don’t
have to worry and what we now know
is – that is completely false,” says
Bowden. The data protection authorities have not been doing the job that
pluck the
goose that
hisses least
people think that they are ought to do:
“In fact the data protection authority’s
function is to legitimate the needs of
governments and business to use
data,” he adds. “And there is an old
saying which is actually about taxation, that the art of taxation is plucking the goose that hisses least, and
similarly we could say the function of
data protection authorities is to allow
the business and governments to use
the data they want to use with the
fewest complaints, or understanding
from the public. That may sound cynical, but I’m afraid that has been my
experience over many years.” concludes Bowden. 
LEGAL SYMPOSIUM
four ways football influences the law
FIFA scores against Russia
FIFA does not only set the
rules for playing football all
over the world, but also has
a great influence on the
national legislation of the
host countries of the FIFA
World Cup. Sometimes the
biggest sport organisation
overrules national laws to
advance lucrative business
deals. That is exactly what
is happening in Russia,
which will host the next
tournament.
I
n June 2013, the Russian Government adopted a special
law on the preparations and
conduct of the FIFA World
Cup 2018. This law was intended to provide seven key guarantees for FIFA. They are: full tax
exemption, security for participants,
information security, building all of
the stadiums and other infrastructure, medical support, no discrimination against any social group, and protection of intellectual property. But
some articles of this federal law overturned by the time of the World Cup
the previously adopted laws.
 The trophy
everybody
wants, but the
Germans. FIFA
promotes its
global events
– but at what
price for
national law?
for
1 visas
football fans
Written by Alena Vershinina
Although the special preferential
visa regime for participants and
fans is already enshrined in the
law,
Russian
President
Vladimir Putin has promised
visa-free entry to Russia during the tournament. And this
will affect not only all official
participants, such as athletes, referees and coaches,
but also ordinary fans. As Mr
Putin said, Russia wanted to
show the world real Russian hospitality.
apa picture desk, andreas gebert
2 beer
advertising
Beer is always one of the six most
important sponsors of FIFA World
Cups, as well as Adidas and CocaCola. But Russian law today prohibits
the advertising of beer on TV before
10 p.m. and in the stadiums. But in
2013, FIFA signed an agreement with
Anheuser-Busch InBev, owner of the
beer brand Budweiser. According to
this, the beer company is the official
sponsor of the World Cups 2018 and
2022, which will take place in Russia
and Qatar. Due to the pressure from
FIFA, the Russian Parliament has
already amended its national law
about advertising to allow beer advertising during FIFA World Cup 2018.
According to some estimates, FIFA
can earn about $80-$120 million from
beer advertising during the World
Cups in Russia and Qatar. President
Putin signed these changes in the law
at the end of June.
in
3 changes
tax legislation
According to the law on the preparations and conduct of the FIFA World
Cup 2018 in Russia, FIFA and its
subsidiaries will not be regarded as
taxpayers in Russia and will not
make any contribution to the Russian
budget. In addition, FIFA asked for
tax exemption for the Russian Organising Committee and the Russian
Football Union. It also hopes for
limits to taxation for collaborating
companies. During the World Cup
2010 in South Africa, FIFA earned
$3.2 billion, largely due to tax exemptions.
ban on
4
homosexuality
propaganda
among young
Since June 2001 Russia has a strict
law prohibiting the promotion of
homosexuality among young people.
In fact, any form of homosexual
relationships can be recognised as a
violation of this law. Offenders face a
fine of around €100. The situation
with the rights of homosexuals in
Russia is not as bad as in Qatar,
where homosexuality is still illegal.
But FIFA is afraid that this law may
scare some football fans who may
decide not to go to Russia during the
World Cup. That is why FIFA asked
Russia, as well as Qatar, to ease their
laws restricting freedom of sexual
gay fans seem
safe after
sochi games
minorities. The Russian government
has not yet taken any steps in this
direction.
It is necessary to note that the
International Olympic Committee
had the same fears before the start of
the Olympic Games in Sochi. But during the Olympics, homosexual fans
had no problems with Russian
authorities or police because of sexual orientation. 
11
photo luiza puiu
MED  EDU  LAW  TEC  POL  ECN  BLT  FIN