Project activities

Jean Monnet Chair: Everything as a Service: Regulating the Digital and Sustainable Transformation of the Services Economy in the EU – XaaS

Below is the Year 1 (2024–2025) report of activities within the Jean Monnet Chair.

Activities

• 4 October 2024 – Promotion of EU to younger audiences
  Within the framework of the Jean Monnet Chair activities, Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik gave a lecture for children at the Mini University of the Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor (MUF). She introduced schoolchildren to the topic “Who Governs Us?”, explaining how decisions are made in Slovenia and in the EU, how citizens can participate, and what options exist when people are dissatisfied with those in power.

• 25 October 2024 – Roundtable on the future of lawyers
  On 25 October 2024, Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik participated in a roundtable discussion commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Maribor Bar Association, featured in Večer under the title “Law is harsh, and we are becoming harsh too — what will the lawyer of the future look like?”. She joined eminent legal professionals to reflect on the evolving role of lawyers in the digital age and to advocate for a more humane application of legal norms.

Rajko Knez, Šime Ivanjko, Janja Hojnik, Miha Šošić in Anej M Irgolič (z leve) v debati ob 60. obletnici pravniškega društva. Foto: Tadej Regent

• 28 October 2024 – Guest lecture at the Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka

As part of the Jean Monnet Chair, Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik gave a guest lecture at the Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka on 28 October 2024, entitled “Blurring Distinction Between Goods and Services”.

• 18 November 2024 – PhD defence committee, KU Leuven
  Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik served as a member of the examination committee for the public defence of a doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Law, University of Leuven (KU Leuven). The defence took place on 18 November 2024, and the thesis was successfully defended by Harry Slachmuylders on the topic “Contractual rights and liabilities in circular business models: A study of consumer protection in product as a service contracts.” More information is available on the KU Leuven website.

• 29–30 November 2024 – Brown Bag Lunch Group in-person meeting, Vienna
  Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik is a member of the Brown Bag Lunch Group (BBL), a multidisciplinary network of independent experts, entrepreneurs and academics in the fields of digital policy, regulatory affairs, IT, health, telecommunications and cyber security. The group meets every Friday to exchange views on key developments in the digital space. In addition to regular online exchanges, an in-person meeting was held in Vienna on 29–30 November 2024, further strengthening collaboration within the network.
• 6 December 2024 – Conference presentation, Maribor

Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik actively contributed to the dissemination of the project results by co-presenting, together with Paul Timmers, the lecture “Analysing the Legality of EU Sanctions on Russian Citizens Using Large Language Models” at the XVI Conference on Law and Economics: Challenges of Artificial Intelligence, organised by the Faculty of Law, University of Maribor, on 6 December 2024.

• 21 March 2025 – EU Ambassador School roundtable, II. gimnazija Maribor
  On 21 March 2025, Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik took part in a round table at II. gimnazija Maribor, organised by the school’s European Parliament Ambassador School (EPAS) students. Together with Dr. Miro Cerar, former Prime Minister of Slovenia, and Dr. Marko Lovec, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana, she discussed current global challenges, including the return of Donald Trump to the White House, migration as a consequence of wars, and the rise of right-wing parties. The event also hosted student ambassadors and teachers from II. gimnazija Zagreb, with whom the Maribor school has a long-standing partnership.

• 26 March 2025 – Roundtable on constitutionalisation of cash use, Ljubljana
  On 26 March 2025, Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik participated as an invited discussant at a round table on “Open Issues of the Constitutionalization of Cash Use”, organised by the Slovenian Constitutional Law Society at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana.
• 11 July 2025 – Summer School lecture, Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka
  As part of the Jean Monnet Chair activities, Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik delivered a guest lecture at the Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka during the Summer School in July 2025. On Friday, 11 July 2025, she gave a morning lecture entitled “Everything as a Service: Where is a Product, What is a Service and Why Does It Matter?”, introducing students to the regulatory and conceptual challenges of the XaaS economy.

• 29 September 2025 – Jean Monnet Seminar on housing and market freedoms
  As part of the Jean Monnet Chair activities, a seminar entitled “Balancing Housing Challenges and Market Freedoms: Between Social Goals and Economic Rights” will be organised on 29 September 2025. The seminar will take place in the context of the expected adoption of the new Slovenian Hospitality Act and will bring together distinguished speakers from academia, EU institutions and local government to discuss the regulation of short-term rentals and the broader challenges of balancing housing needs with market freedoms. The draft programme is available here.
• Ongoing – Supervision of a PhD candidate
  Within the framework of the Jean Monnet Chair project, Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik supervised a doctoral candidate, Katja Vizjak, whose dissertation explores the constitutional dimensions of regulating the collaborative economy in the EU. The candidate is expected to defend her doctoral thesis on 25 September 2025.
• Ongoing – Editorial board of the Common Market Law Review, Leiden

Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the Common Market Law Review (Heyden: Sijthoff, 1963– ; Alphen aan den Rijn, ISSN 0165-0750), for the period 2022–2027. Link to journal.

Master’s Thesis Supervision

• Mentored the master’s thesis “Governance and Regulation of Data in EU Law: An Analysis of the Data Act” (author: Gal Pastirk, Faculty of Law, University of Maribor, 2024).
• Mentored the master’s thesis “Cross‑Border Termination of Unwanted Pregnancy in the EU” (author: Nika Simonič, Faculty of Law, University of Maribor, 2024).
• Mentored the master’s thesis “Independence of the Judiciary as a Criterion for Accession to the European Union – The Case of Montenegro” (author: Tara Serhatlić, Faculty of Law, University of Maribor, 2025).

Reviewer

• Prof. Dr. Janja Hojnik acted as a reviewer of the monograph Digitalne platforme: pravni in ekonomski izzivi, edited by Tomaž Keresteš (Maribor: University of Maribor Press, 2024, 240 pp.; ISBN 978-961-286-931-1). The publication is available online via University of Maribor Press, DKUM, dLib.si, and carries the DOI 10.18690/um.pf.5.2024