Autonomous Systems And The Law

A close examination of the interface between autonomous technologies and the law with legal analysis grounded in technological realities.

This examination of the implications and regulation of autonomous weapons systems combines contributions from law, robotics and philosophy.

This book sets out a possible trajectory for the co-development of legal responsibility on the one hand and artificial intelligence and the machines and systems driven by it on the other. As autonomous technologies become more sophisticated it will be harder to attribute harms caused by them to the humans who design or work with them. This will put pressure on legal responsibility and autonomous technologies to co-evolve. Mark Chinen illustrates how these factors strengthen incentives to develop even more advanced systems, which in turn strengthens nascent calls to grant legal and moral status to autonomous machines. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners of legal doctrine, ethics, and autonomous technologies.

This book examines central aspects of the new technologies and the legal questions raised by them from both an international and an inter-disciplinary perspective. The technology revolution and the global networking of IT systems pose enormous challenges for the law. Current areas of discussion relate to autonomous systems, big data and issues surrounding legal tech. Ensuring data protection and IT security as well as the creation of a legal framework for the new technology as a whole can only be achieved through international and inter-disciplinary co-operation. The team of authors is made up of experienced, internationally renowned experts as well as young researchers and professionals who give valuable insights from numerous different jurisdictions. This book is written for jurists and those responsible for technology in public authorities and companies as well as practising lawyers and researchers.

As computational power, the volume of available data, IT systems’ autonomy, and the human-like capabilities of machines increase, robots and AI systems have substantial and growing implications for the law and raise a host of challenges to current legal doctrines. The main question to be answered is whether the foundations and general principles of private law and criminal law offer a functional and adaptive legal framework for the “autonomous systems” phenomena. The main purpose of this book is to identify and explore possible trajectories for the development of civil and criminal liability; for our understanding of the attribution link to autonomous systems; and, in particular, for the punishment of unlawful conduct in connection with their operation. AI decision-making processes – including judicial sentencing – also warrant close attention in this regard. Since AI is moving faster than the process of regulatory recalibration, this book provides valuable insights on its redesign and on the harmonization, at the European level, of the current regulatory frameworks, in order to keep pace with technological changes. Providing a broader and more comprehensive picture of the legal challenges posed by autonomous systems, this book covers a wide range of topics, including the regulation of autonomous vehicles, data protection and governance, personality rights, intellectual property, corporate governance, and contract conclusion and termination issues arising from automated decisions, blockchain technology and AI applications, particularly in the banking and finance sectors. The authors are legal experts from around the world with extensive academic and/or practical experience in these areas.

What legal status should be granted to artificial agents?