Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

There are no prerequisites for the participation in the course. Participation and attendance to the course will be positively considered.

The aim of the course is to provide students with basic knowledge and elements of legal theory, with specific regard to the relation between law and technology, to enable them to develop arguments and critical reflections on the main subjects of the course as well as to make a correct use of the philosophical and legal language.  

As a result of the course, students are expected:

-  to obtain the basic knowledge and elements of legal theory;

-  to obtain the basic knowledge and elements of law and technology;

-  to be able to develop arguments and critical reflections on the main subjects of the course;

-  to be able to understand and make a correct use of the philosophical and legal language.

The course dwells on the legal impact of the information revolution, so as to stress endurances and breakthroughs of today's legal. For the first time ever, human societies are increasingly dependent on ICTs and moreover, on information as a vital resource. This new scenario affects the ways in which legal systems have been represented in terms of norms, sanctions, or political representation, over the past centuries. The aim of the course is to explain this profound transformation, by taking into account current debates on the information revolution, computational power, privacy and data protection, human and artificial intelligence, data, information and knowledge, fake news, digital memory and the construction of personal identities, the governance of algorithms, and information and power asymmetries. 

Topics:

1. Introduction into Law and New Technologies
2. The Information Revolution
3. The Concept of Technology
4. Human and Artificial Intelligence
5. Memory and Oblivion in the GDPR
6. Data, Information, and Knowledge
7. Truth and Fake News
8. The Governance of Algorithms
9. The Asymmetric Distribution of Data and Rights
10. Information and Power Asymmetries

The course consists of forty teaching hours. The course will be delivered in presence. The course may be integrated by reading and study materials, video lectures, ppt presentations, etc. All the materials will be made available on course webpage.

An oral exam will cover all the topics of the course. Through questioning, students are expected to prove the required theoretical knowledge of the main subjects of the course.

Massimo Durante, Computational Power. The Impact of ICT on Law, Society, and Knowledge, Routledge, London, 2021.