Jean Monnet Chair: Everything as a Service: Regulating the Digital and Sustainable Transformation of the Services Economy in the EU – XaaS
New Jean Monnet Chair at the Faculty of Law, University of Maribor
Title of the Project: Everything as a Service (XaaS): Regulating the Digital and Sustainable Transformation of the Services Economy in the EU
Jean Monnet Chair Holder: Professor Janja Hojnik
Duration of the project: 1 October 2024 – 30 September 2027
Project ID: 101176380
Short description of the project
This Jean Monnet Chair highlights the central theme of "Everything as a Service (XaaS)" and emphasizes the regulatory aspect, as well as the dual focus on digital and sustainable transformation within the services economy in the EU context. XaaS reflects the market trend where consumers are increasingly prioritizing functionality over the ownership of physical products, leading to a surge in 'product-as-a-service' models. The project hence centers on three pivotal themes: servitization, digitalization, and sustainability and delves on their interconnections.
Nowadays, a buyer no longer only buys products but is offered (temporary) access to them. This presents the service of the provider for the buyer and as they are so spread in the economy this is labelled as the servitization megatrend. Servitization integrates economic, technological, and ecological aspects, however, it remains underexplored in legal studies and practice.
The JM Chair aims to provide a comprehensive regulatory perspective on the modern services economy in the EU, underscoring its extensive societal impact. The Chair will bolster teaching and research activities at the University of Maribor, engaging students from diverse backgrounds in discussions about the EU economy's servitization, sustainability and digitalization challenges. Law students from Slovenia and abroad (especially from the Balkans), enrolled in the European Legal Studies Master's program, alongside students from other disciplines (like business, IT, and natural sciences), will benefit from this initiative.
The Jean Monnet Chair examines the legal, economic, and environmental facets of evolving business models, especially in digitization and green transition contexts. It will focus on the regulatory aspects (EU single market, competition, consumer law, sustainability etc). Each academic year, a public event featuring guest speakers from the University of Leuven, the University of Copenhagen, and field practitioners will be organized.
Members of the project:
· Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik, Jean Monnet Chair Holder, Faculty of Law, University of Maribor, Slovenia
· Assoc. Prof. Dr. Petra Weingerl, Faculty of Law, University of Maribor, Slovenia
· Assist. Živa Šuta, Faculty of Law, University of Maribor, Slovenia
· Prof. Dr. Ulla Neergard, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
· Prof. Dr. Bert Keirsbilck, Faculty of Law, University of Leuven, Belgium
· Prof. Dr. Evelyne Terryn, Faculty of Law, University of Leuven, Belgium
For the academic year 2024/25, three master's thesis topics have been announced within the framework of the project:
- Extended producer responsibility under EU law (i.e., the obligation to care for the product at the end of its use – an environmental topic in light of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia's case before the Court of Justice of the EU)
- Short-term property rentals in the context of the free movement of services in the EU
- The legal nature of cloud services under EU law: Between economic service and the protection of sovereignty and personal data.
References of the Jean Monnet Chair Holder
HOJNIK, Janja. Ecological modernization through servitization : EU regulatory support for sustainable product-service systems. Review of European, comparative & international environmental law. July 2018, vol. 27, iss. 2, str. 162-174.
HOJNIK, Janja. Technology neutral EU law: digital goods within the traditional goods/services distinction. International journal of law and information technology. 2017, 25, 1, str. 63-84.
HOJNIK, Janja. The servitization of industry : EU law implications and challenges. Common market law review. 2016, vol. 53, no. 6, str. 1575-1624.
HOJNIK, Janja. Environmental protection v. free trade - "buy local" as a barrier to EU internal market. Environmental policy and law. 2016, vol. 46, iss. 3/4, str. 246-252.
HOJNIK, Janja. Regulatory aspects of servitisation : study materials for global course. 1st ed. Maribor: University of Maribor Press, 2024. (120 str.)). ISBN 978-961-286-824-6. https://press.um.si/index.php/ump/catalog/book/846, Digitalna knjižnica Univerze v Mariboru – DKUM