Christiane Wendehorst has been Professor of Civil Law at the University of Vienna since 2008. Amongst other functions, she is founding member and President of the European Law Institute (ELI); chair of the Academy Council of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW); and member of the Academia Europea (AE), the International Academy for Comparative Law (IACL), The American Law Institute (ALI) and the Bioethics Committee at the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Currently, her work is focused on legal challenges arising from digitalization. She has worked as an expert on subjects such as digital content, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and data economy.

Steven O. Weise is a partner in the Corporate Department at Proskauer Rose, Los Angeles. He practices in all areas of commercial law.Steven’s experience in financing is extensive, especially in those secured by personal property, including structured financing. He also handles matters involving California real property anti-deficiency laws, workouts, guarantees, sales of goods, equipment leasing, commercial paper and checks, letters of credit, and investment securities. Steven’s experience covers e-commerce, contract law (including “plain English” drafting), legal opinions, and consumer credit law compliance matters. In addition, Steven lectures widely on commercial law topics and legal opinion letters and is the author of over 100 articles on these topics.

Lord John Thomas is one of the European Law Institute’s founding members and currently serves as its First Vice-President. He was a practicing barrister in England and Wales until 1996, a Judge of the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales (1996–2013) and then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (2013–2017). He was President of the European Network of Councils of the Judiciary (ENCJ) (2008–2010). He is Chairman of the Welsh Government’s Commission on Justice in Wales, Chairman of the UK Financial Markets Law Committee, Chancellor of Aberystwyth University (from January 2018), an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and a Fellow of the Universities of Bangor, Cardiff and Swansea.