Branka Marušić has defended her PhD thesis
Branka Marušić defended her doctoral thesis in Private Law, entitled ”The Autonomous Legal Concept of Communication to the Public in the European Union”, on October 30th. The external reviewer was Professor P. Bernt Hugenholtz, from the University of Amsterdam.
In the last decades, the manner in which we access, consume, and enjoy content, such as film and music, has changed. The traditional way of availability of content was predetermined. In order to access content, one was required to be at a certain place in a specific time, for example in front of a TV or in a cinema.
Today, the content is available from a place and a time individually chosen by the end user and oftentimes accessed, consumed, and enjoyed over the internet. The infrastructure of the internet – for online availability of content – is becoming more and more complex.
The main economic right of a rightholder
One of the reasons for this complexity can be found in an economic right of the copyright holder. This specific economic right – although found in other EU harmonising measures – is embodied in Article 3 InfoSoc Directive, which is an implementation of Article 8 WCT in EU law. The right of communication to the public, which includes the right of making available to the public (legal concept of the economic right), has in recent decades become the main economic right of a rightholder in digital realities.
This economic right serves as a vehicle whereby the rightholder can prevent content from being made available online, or conversely, allow it to be. The reason why the legal concept of the economic right is aiding the complexity of online availability of content is the legal uncertainty about the scope of the said legal concept. This legal uncertainty – among other issues of legal complexity – is facilitated by the interpretations of the CJEU.
The study of Branka Marušić concentrates on the legal concept of the economic right from an EU perspective and describes and analyses overlapping legal systems related to economic law and the overlapping realities in which these legal systems operate. The contribution to existing legal research is twofold. Firstly, it emphasises the legal standing and effect, from a constitutional perspective, of autonomous legal concepts of EU law. Secondly, it applies the legal concept of the economic right to communication models in order to explain how the said right operates in digital realities.
ABOUT THE PUBLIC DEFENCE
The external reviewer was P. Bernt Hugenholtz, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, from the University of Amsterdam.
The examining committee consisted of Professor Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, Stockholm University, Professor Irini Stamatoudi, University of Nikosia (Cyprus) and Professor Ansgar Ohly, LMU München (Germany).
The supervisor was Professor Per Jonas Nordell, Stockhom University. Assistant supervisor was Professor Jan Rosén, Stockholm University, and LLM. Johan Axhamn, Lund University.
Last updated: November 3, 2021
Source: SULaw