The international academic conference held by the Gazit-Globe Real Estate Institute, part of the Harry Radzyner Law School, took place on June 23-24, 2019 and dealt with technological innovation in real estate, law and regulation. The conference, run by Prof. Amnon Lehavi and Dr. Ronit Levine-Schnur, was attended by a group of leading blockchain and regulatory experts from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the United States, and Israel. The group discussed the questions of whether property law should adapt to the blockchain era (unsure), whether the world of land registration is about to witness a dramatic change (yes), whether the state has another role to play in the information realm (certainly, as do the information giants), and whether code is the new law (it’s still too early to tell).
Included among the participants were:
Prof. C. Kat Grimsley, School of Business, George Mason University
Prof. Benito Arruñada, Department of Economics & Business, Pompeu Fabra University
Prof. Dr. Georg von Wangenheim, Faculty of Economics, University of Kassel
Prof. Dr. Jan Veuger, Saxion Blockchain Institute, Saxion University of Applied Sciences
Dr. Catalina Goanta, Faculty of Law, Maastricht University
Dr. Benjamin Verheye, Faculty of Law, KU Leuven
Prof. Amnon Lehavi, Dean, Harry Radzyner Law School; Academic Director, Gazit-Globe Real Estate Institute, Reichman University.
Dr. Ronit Levine-Schnur, Harry Radzyner Law School; Gazit-Globe Real Estate Institute, Reichman University.
Dr. Tal Moran, Efi Arazi School of Computer Science, Reichman University.
Prof. Yaron Felus, Chief-Scientist, Survey of Israel
At the conference, a panel was held on “Technological Innovation in the Real Estate Market.” Panel members included Yavin Gill-More, CEO of Yad2, Aviv Garten, Co-founder and CCO of Home Hero, Tamar Frumkin, VP Marketing at Skyline AI, Bar Mor, Founder and CEO of Agora, and Nimrod Brandt, Head of Innovation at Gazit Globe. The discussion between the panelists revealed that the regulator in Israel and the United States is not perceived as having a real impact. The main impact on issues relating to knowledge, privacy and power, as well as real estate and resource preservation, is made by entities like Google or Facebook, on the one hand, and by NGOs and interregional organizations, on the other. Another point that came up was that the academy has a responsibility to analyze and reflect these trends and to critically assess them. And indeed, the Gazit-Globe Real Estate Institute will continue with its endeavors to do just that.