JJUA55169U RoboLaw: Law, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Society stands on the cusp of unprecedented, even unfathomable,
change as the maturation of decades of research and development
promises to unleash a wave of brilliant technologies in the near
future. This impending shift of artificial intelligence and robotic
technologies from science fiction to daily reality holds the
potential to inundate society with flood of fundamental challenges
to which legal responses must be defined and developed. The core
objective of this course is thus to formulate and articulate
appropriate legal responses to these challenges, and more broadly
to consider structural and substantive changes to the law that
would be necessary to accommodate for the new realities that these
technologies introduce.
This seminar is divided into three broad sections. Introducing the
emerging field of Robolaw, the aim of the first section is to
critically consider the competing views proffered by commentators
about both the extent of the challenge and the nature of the
necessary responses. Thus, this first section explores the
prominent positions and sketches the contours of the existing
debates surrounding the use of autonomous weapons systems in armed
conflict. This sets the stage for the second section, which delves
into the nature of the legal challenges posed by artificial
intelligence and robotic technologies. These revolve largely around
issues of rights and responsibilities, but this section will also
discuss appropriate and necessary regulatory responses drawn from
experience in technology regulation more broadly. The final section
grounds these more theoretical discussions to specific case studies
where artificial intelligence and robotics may be societally
disruptive, allowing us to consider the role the law might play in
more concrete scenarios. This last section will be left
intentionally flexible to accommodate for the interests of the
students who are actually enrolled in the course and will be agreed
upon in our first meeting, with a reading list to follow shortly
after.
Among the topics covered are:
1: Introduction: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and the Law
2: Early Perspectives on
3: The Cyber Law/Law of the Horse Debate
4: Robots in War: Legal Issues
5: Autonomous Weapons Systems: The Prohibition Debate
6: Robotic Wars and the Limits of Legal Regulation
7: Rights of Robots and Artificially Intelligent Entities
8: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Criminal Liability
9: Responsibility and Emergent Behaviour
10: Technological Management, Risk Perspectives and Regulatory
Responses
11: Direction, Precaution and Prohibition: Artificial Intelligence
as an Existential or Catastrophic Risk
12: Emerging Concerns: The End of Work
13: Emerging Concerns: Legal Practice and the Future of the
Professions
14: Emerging Concerns: Driverless Cars
15: Emerging Concerns: Sex Robots
16: Emerging Concerns: Care and Companion Robots
17: Emerging Concerns: Medical Applications of Robotics and AI
18: Emerging Concerns: Robotic Creativity and the Law
19: Emerging Concerns: Horizon Scanning for Law and Policy Issues
with Robotics and AI
The seminar provides the students with knowledge of:
- The contemporary ethical and moral issues confronting both the
law and legal practice;
- A rapidly emerging, and increasingly crucial, area at the
intersection of law and technology;
- The discussions surrounding emerging social, technological and
legal issues in the contemporary global context;
- Comparative approaches to complex contemporary problems;
- The possibilities for improving law and justice introduced by
near horizon technologies.
The seminar provides the students with the following skills:
- The ability to identify and adopt interdisciplinary
approaches, methodologies and analysis, with awareness of the
possibilities and limitations;
- The capacity to discuss legal, social and technological issues at
both the transnational and international contexts;
- The ability to both creatively and critically assess claims of
the impact of emerging technologies upon current law.
The seminar provides the students with the following competencies:
- The ability to independently identify and address emerging
legal issues within contemporary social and technological changes;
- The ability to apply comparative approaches to complex problems
(e.g. by researching responses developed in other jurisdictions or
by drawing analogies to responses to other technological fields);
- The capability to critically address rapidly changing global
realities from a legal perspective;
- The capacity to independently undertake rigorous legal analysis
of complex social, ethical and technological issues in creative and
critical fashions.
Many of the readings emanate from American sources for the simple reason that this is where most of the scholarship and commentary is generated. Be aware, therefore, that many of the legal reactions and positions taken are rooted within American jurisprudence. As a result, you should treat these sources as informing the development of your thinking on these exciting emerging issues, rather than as immutable law. Remember, you will be assessed on your critical engagement with the material in your final essay.
General Materials:
The proposed textbook will be the forthcoming ‘Robot Law’, edited by Ryan Calo, A. Michael Froomkin and Ian Kerr (Edward Elgar 2016), which is the very first of its kind.
We will also draw material from Ugo Pagallo, ‘The Law of Robots’ (Springer 2013).
These core sources will be complemented by a range of academic articles and policy and press pieces tailored to each seminar topic which will be made available through Absalon in good time.
As this is a dynamic area, the reading list provided below should be seen as guidance only and will be subject to revision. A fantastic resource, completely free and open-access, are the papers constituting the We Robot Conferences held every Spring since 2012 (at the Universities of Miami, Stanford and Washington so far). Rather than providing you with a direct link it is actually useful that you navigate around the series of websites yourselves so that you are able to find the material that interests you the most. In most instances, video recordings of the panels and conference papers presented are also accessible from the relevant We Robot website. The ‘Robot Law’ volume consists of updated contributions to those conferences.
General Background:
John Brockman (ed.), What to Think About Machines That Think
(2015) Harper Collins.
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age, (2014)
W.W. Norton.
Martin Ford, The Rise of the Robots (2015) Basic Books.
Other Resources:
New York Times, Smarter Than You Think Series:
http://projects.nytimes.com/smarter-than-youthink/
New York Times, Bits Robotica Video Series:
http://www.nytimes.com/video/robotica
Centre for Existential Risk research theme:
http://cser.org/emerging-risks-fromtechnology/
artificial-intelligence/
Furthermore, student presentations are planned for the latter section of the course in which self-directed research and group coordination are key. The students have to identify an area in which they have particular interest, find common ground with others and then coordinate to form a coherent presentation of a relevant (usually more specific) topic to which they contribute an integral part. As a result, the full diversity of perspectives in the classroom can be aired effectively, while their colleagues are able to provide direct feedback to the presentation and to the individual projects which have been aired.
- Category
- Hours
- Preparation
- 356,5
- Seminar
- 56
- Total
- 412,5
Enrolling as a Single Master Level/ Credit Student:
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For further
information
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written examinationIndividual written assignment
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Exam period
Autumn: January 11, 2018
Spring: June 13, 2018
- Re-exam
Autumn: February 16, 2018
Spring: August 8, 2018
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- JJUA55169U
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree MasterFull Degree Master choice
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn And Spring
- Schedule
- Please see timetable for teaching time
- Continuing and further education
- Price
15.000 DKK
- Study board
- Law
Contracting department
- Law
Course Coordinators
- Hin-Yan Liu (11-73747938846c79397774804b75807d397680396f76)