The digitalization and commercialization of teaching have greatly complicated the university world; twin processes that have wrought great changes to institutions of higher learning, both externally with respect to their roles in society, and internally with respect to the relationship between universities, teachers and students. These processes raise both new and old questions with respect to academic freedom, copyrights to teaching materials, employment rights, open access and data protection, public sector information and transparency. The recurring thread in all the chapters presented in this work is a more focused, explicit treatment of these issues in the law is needed, taking into consideration the different interests of society, the academy, academics, students or the public.

The analyses in this book give rise to the question what law, lawyers and legal systems can provide as responses. There obviously is a need to bring in legal assessments, proactively, at the early stages of e-learning development. When e-learning and e-applications are already launched, it is more costly and complicated to reactively rectify the situation, for instance, in cases of flawed personal data protection. Law needs to play an active role. Last but not least, legal systems as such must protect and strengthen the values of a democratic society. When traditional academic learning is challenged internally and externally by commercialization and digitalization, academic freedom and the protections of privacy and moral rights are essential. The need for digital humanities is compelling in learning environments where artificial intelligence and associated algorithms have become part of our daily lives.