Private Ordnung virtueller Räume

Lea Katharina Kumkar examines the possibilities and limits of non-contractual rule-making in the digital sector. She begins with the observation that digital services are often used without a solid contractual basis. This raises the question of whether providers can regulate user behaviour - for example through "community standards" - even in the absence of contractual obligations. The author develops a model that derives regulatory authority from subjective rights ("theory of conditional permission"): a rightsholder may permit third parties to interfere with the protected scope of their right and may attach conditions to this permission. Such conditions participate in the validity claim of the subjective right and operate as binding rules of conduct for anyone who acts within the protected scope of that right. On this basis, the subjective right conveys a rule-making authority that is limited by the object of the right itself. For the digital sector, the author identifies ownership of the server as a suitable basis for non-contractual rule-making. Access to server resources constitutes rivalrous use and thus an interference with property. Owners may therefore set conditions for such use and thereby regulate behaviour in virtual space. However, this form of rule-making is subject to limits arising in particular from the principles governing the effect of fundamental rights between private parties as well as from regulatory requirements.