PhD Course: Digital technologies and artificial intelligence law

The course focuses on the main legal aspects of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. The first part of the course (modules 1 and 2) is dedicated to general aspects, relating to the development of a legal notion of cyberspace and the analysis of different regulatory approaches. Subsequently, having acknowledged the disciplinary inadequacy of formal legislation, the issue of non-regulatory based regulatory systems is addressed. In this sense, the need for an "interdisciplinary" approach is recognized that can lead to the definition of legal rules "modeled on the nature of things" to be regulated. Specifically, the disciplinary potential of design is analyzed, i.e. the suitability of design standards in regulating digital phenomena in a much more incisive way than the laws in a formal sense.

From the examination of the advantages and criticalities of such an approach - especially with regard to respect for fundamental rights and freedoms – we come to envisage a new model of regulation, based on the
interaction between legal and technical factors, the result of which is to to arrive at the creation of a so-called norm "techno- juridical" which derives its binding character, in the light of the principle of horizontal subsidiarity.

The second part of the course (modules 3 and 4) addresses the problem of the so-called cybersecurity, with regard to both digital activities and more specifically artificial intelligence. We come to the definition - also in the light of the main European regulatory interventions - of a "proceduralized" and "multiphase" security model, based on the subsidiary interaction between legal, technical and organizational-managerial factors. Subsequently, the issue of responsibility deriving from the production and management of artificial intelligence systems is dealt with, both in terms of existing legislation and in terms of European regulatory proposals. Module 5 will address some sectoral issues (e.g. copyright; personal data; smart contracts, predictive justice).