Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

Technology is shaping our everyday life. We cannot imagine our daily activities
without the Internet and other innovations. A similar revolution has a remarkable
impact also on the international legal order. The course International Law and
New Technologies aims at providing students with a brief understanding of the
deep impact of technologies such as the Internet, Artificial Intelligence and Big
Data, on international law. After a brief introduction to international law, the
course explores specific issues arising from the evolution of new technologies.

Students are expected to acquire a deep understanding of the interactions between international law and new technologies. They will also acquire analytical and critical skills.

The course is an online course, part of the Start@Unito 2 program

At the end of each module, students will find a self-assessment test, which may
help them to understand their effective degree of knowledge of the contents of the
course. These tests may be repeated several times and do not influence the final
mark. At the end of the course, students will find a final test, composed of 30
multiple choice questions. In order to pass the test, it is necessary to answer
correctly to at least 18 questions. The score of the final test does not influence
the final mark. Only after passing the final test, students will be admitted to the
final in person exam, consisting in a written test with open questions. In order to
pass the final exam, students shall study the materials reported below.

The course is divided in 6 modules. The first one is devoted to the analysis of
subjectivity in international law, with a brief introduction to the notion of
international law and a historical background. The second one covers the sources
of international law, focusing on the traditional sources, as well as on nonconventional ones, such as soft law. The third module introduces the core topic of
the course, i.e. the impact of new technologies on the contemporary international
legal order, focusing, in particular, on the notions of sovereignty and on the
territorial postulate. The fourth one presents the different ways of regulation of
new technologies, with a focus on the approaches of multistakeholderism and
cybersovereignty. The last two modules, on the other hand, address more specific
and technical issues. In particular, the fifth one aims at exploring the challenges
posed by new technologies to international humanitarian law (IHL) applicable in
armed conflicts, analyzing the notions of cyber warfare and automated weapons
systems (AWS). Finally, the sixth module covers the issues of Big Data, surveillance and human rights, trying to evaluate how the right to privacy is
questioned by these new technologies.
Each module is composed of:
1. A video introduction to the contents of the module, with the transcription of the
lecturers’ voice;
2. Four sub-units, with a presentation and the relevant written text;
3. A summary of the module, consisting in a voiced presentation;
4. A self-assessment test, with 10 multiple choice questions.

Text materials are uploaded onto the Start@Unito 2 platform