On Thursday, 3 April 2025, the German Bar Association (DAV) awarded the ‘German IT Law Prize’ for the third time in a row. Hanjo Hamann from EBS Law School shared second place with a colleague from Berlin. The prize is awarded annually to young lawyers under the age of 40 who deal with current IT law issues and present legal content in an understandable and innovative way. The jury consists of representatives from the DAV IT Law Working Group (davit), the Legal Tech Association Germany and heise-Verlag.

Hanjo Hamann reached the final with a text on his research into the copyright permissibility of training artificial intelligence (https://doi.org/10.1628/zge-2024-0012) - a topic that is not only highly relevant from a legal perspective, but is also the subject of intense social debate. In his article, Dr Hamann chose an unusual narrative approach: he wrote his analysis from the perspective of a computer that is seeking legal advice on whether it may be trained with copyright-protected content. This creative and vivid presentation makes it possible to convey complex legal issues in an understandable and innovative way. The particular relevance of his research was emphasised by the Hamburg Regional Court, among others, which referred to his arguments in detail in a recent judgement (view verdict).

Further information on the award ceremony.

Picture credits: Christian Blüm, Cap 10 Photography