Law
EURA carries out innovative research in the field of Law&Technology.
It identifies and critically assesses the legislative framework applicable to different R&AI devices from a national, international, European and comparative perspective, highlighting the regulatory as well as socio-economic problems they give rise to, and suggesting possible solution, as to foster technological innovation while respecting European values and principles according the so called European Approach to R&AI.
The EURA team inquires regulatory modes and techniques from the perspective of public law and legal theory: it considers the differences between law and regulation, the different approaches to technology regulation, possible interactions, and the consequences of opting for one approach or the other.
Extensive research is conducted on the nature of R&AI, on its legal as well as philosophical qualification, particularly in the light of the machines’ increased autonomy, ability to learn and to modify themselves over time and use, contributing to the current debate on the possibility and feasibility of an artificial legal personhood.
Studies are carried out as to understand the role and limit of the use of AI in sentencing and in crime prevention, as well as the use of machines to induce crime commission as a tool for preventing real harm from being perpetrated against human victims.
Civil and criminal liability arising from defective products, as well as other forms of corporate responsibility arising from the use and or distribution of R&A are also extensively addressed, together with issues related to products’ testing, standardization, certification and insurance. EURA’s researchers discuss the effectiveness of extant product liability legislation in offering adequate ex ante product safety and ex post compensation, elaborating alternative solutions, such as the so-called Risk-Management Approach developed by Dr. Bertolini, which was expressly considered by the EU Commission and Parliament as a viable solution to the matter of liability distribution and apportionment.
EURA’s research also covers data-collecting technology, data protection, free flow of data and different forms of data ownership and use. All the relevant areas of IP law, including patents, designs, copyright and trademarks are examined in terms of encouraging and incentivising robotic/AI innovation, as well as the mapping consequences of robot-assisted invention and creativity in the IP field.
For all these areas of research, different types of applications are addressed, including driverless vehicles, expert systems, medical-robotics, drones, digital platform, as well as bio-robotics applications and robot companions.