scholarly journals Vital, Sophia, and Co.—The Quest for the Legal Personhood of Robots

Information ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugo Pagallo
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Business Law ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Legal Personhood ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
The Status ◽  
Rational Choices ◽  
To Receive

The paper examines today’s debate on the legal status of AI robots, and how often scholars and policy makers confuse the legal agenthood of these artificial agents with the status of legal personhood. By taking into account current trends in the field, the paper suggests a twofold stance. First, policy makers shall seriously mull over the possibility of establishing novel forms of accountability and liability for the activities of AI robots in contracts and business law, e.g., new forms of legal agenthood in cases of complex distributed responsibility. Second, any hypothesis of granting AI robots full legal personhood has to be discarded in the foreseeable future. However, how should we deal with Sophia, which became the first AI application to receive citizenship of any country, namely, Saudi Arabia, in October 2017? Admittedly, granting someone, or something, legal personhood is—as always has been—a highly sensitive political issue that does not simply hinge on rational choices and empirical evidence. Discretion, arbitrariness, and even bizarre decisions play a role in this context. However, the normative reasons why legal systems grant human and artificial entities, such as corporations, their status, help us taking sides in today’s quest for the legal personhood of AI robots. Is citizen Sophia really conscious, or capable of suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous scholars?

scholarly journals Gradient Legal Personhood for AI Systems—Painting Continental Legal Shapes Made to Fit Analytical Molds

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Mădălina Mocanu
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Bundle Theory ◽  
Gradient Theory ◽  
Legal Capacity ◽  
Legal Personhood ◽  
The Status ◽  
Theory Framework ◽  
Theory Paradigm

What I propose in the present article are some theoretical adjustments for a more coherent answer to the legal “status question” of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. I arrive at those by using the new “bundle theory” of legal personhood, together with its accompanying conceptual and methodological apparatus as a lens through which to look at a recent such answer inspired from German civil law and named Teilrechtsfähigkeit or partial legal capacity. I argue that partial legal capacity is a possible solution to the status question only if we understand legal personhood according to this new theory. Conversely, I argue that if indeed Teilrechtsfähigkeit lends itself to being applied to AI systems, then such flexibility further confirms the bundle theory paradigm shift. I then go on to further analyze and exploit the particularities of Teilrechtsfähigkeit to inform a reflection on the appropriate conceptual shape of legal personhood and suggest a slightly different answer from the bundle theory framework in what I term a “gradient theory” of legal personhood.

scholarly journals Legal status of direct sales of agricultural and food products in the legislation of selected EU Member States

2020 ◽  
pp. 65-77
Author(s):  
Anna Kapała
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Food Products ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Business Law ◽  
Member States ◽  
Direct Sales ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Italian Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
Definition Of

The purpose of the discussion presented in the article was to determine the legal status of direct sale of agricultural and food products and its place in the agricultural activity in the legislation of selected EU Member States: Poland, Italy, and France. The considerations show that each legislator has chosen a different way of determining the legal status of this activity, though with a view to a similar ratio legis, which is to support it by enabling and facilitating farmers involvement. In Polish law, “agricultural retail sale” is outside the narrow definition of agricultural activity. It is not, however, subject to the provisions of business law provided it meets the conditions specified in law. Italian law defines the status of direct sales explicitly as agricultural, situating them among connected agricultural activities carried out by the agricultural entrepreneur. The detailed criteria for its connection with the agricultural activity by nature constitute a separate special regulation. In French law, thanks to the broad definition of agricultural activity, the place of direct sale as an agricultural activity par relation which is an extension of the act of production, is defined by case-law.

scholarly journals Legal status of child with disabilities as legal category of social security (part І)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Stashkiv B.I. ◽  
◽  
Denysenko K.V. ◽  
Zinchuk Yu.O. ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Legal Representative ◽  
The Status ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
Special Rights ◽  
To Receive

The article is devoted to the study of such a legal category as the legal status of a child with disabilities in the field of social security, its structural elements, the relationship with the status of other categories of material support recipients. The authors conclude that the elements of the legal status of a child with disabilities are only his/her rights and responsibilities, which are realized by him/her through a legal representative or with hi/her active assistance. Freedom is not the subject of a study of social security law and is not part of a child’s legal status. Legal capacity indicates that a child with disabilities is a subject of social security law and has the rights and responsibilities provided by this branch of law since birth until reaching adulthood. In most cases, children with disabilities are not aware of the importance of their actions and cannot be guided by them, that is, to dispose of rights and responsibilities, and therefore they cannot be full-fledged subjects of social security relations. In such legal relations, they are often replaced by legal representatives. The special rights of a child with disabilities in the field of social protection are the child`s legal possibilities with the assistance of his/her legal representative to receive additional types of compensatory social security, which are associated with disability due to persistent dysfunction. In social security law, ensuring the responsibilities and violating of them rely on the child`s legal representative. Some responsibilities may be imposed on a child with disabilities when he/she receives social services, but in most cases he/she will be morally responsible for the violation. In the article the authors conditionally divided three categories of children with special needs: 1) children with disabilities; 2) children with serious illnesses who have not been diagnosed with disabilities; 3) children with mental or physical disabilities who have no grounds for establishing disability. Key words: the concept of the category “child with disabilities”, the procedure for establishing disability in children, elements of the legal status of a child with disabilities, rights and responsibilities of children with disabilities in social protection, social benefits for children with disabilities, social services for children with disabilities.

scholarly journals Apples, oranges, robots: four misunderstandings in today's debate on the legal status of AI systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 376 (2133) ◽  
pp. 20180168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugo Pagallo
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Business Law ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Personhood ◽  
The Law ◽  
Competitive Federalism ◽  
The Eu

Scholars have increasingly discussed the legal status(es) of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) systems over the past three decades; however, the 2017 resolution of the EU parliament on the ‘electronic personhood’ of AI robots has reignited and even made current debate ideological. Against this background, the aim of the paper is twofold. First, the intent is to show how often today's discussion on the legal status(es) of AI systems leads to different kinds of misunderstanding that regard both the legal personhood of AI robots and their status as accountable agents establishing rights and obligations in contracts and business law. Second, the paper claims that whether or not the legal status of AI systems as accountable agents in civil––as opposed to criminal––law may make sense is an empirical issue, which should not be ‘politicized’. Rather, a pragmatic approach seems preferable, as shown by methods of competitive federalism and legal experimentation. In the light of the classical distinction between primary rules and secondary rules of the law, examples of competitive federalism and legal experimentation aim to show how the secondary rules of the law can help us understanding what kind of primary rules we may wish for our AI robots. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Governing artificial intelligence: ethical, legal, and technical opportunities and challenges’.

scholarly journals How States Order the World: A Typology of “Core” and “Peripheral” Foreign Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 504-514
Author(s):  
Nikola Pijović
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Policy Direction ◽  
To Receive

Abstract Every state's foreign policy has to deal with other states, regions, and transnational issues, not all of whom are likely to receive the same level of policy-making interest and attention. States have differing foreign policy priorities, but how do we conceptualize those different priorities? To explain how states order the world and prioritize their foreign policy, I establish an ideal typology of “core” and “peripheral” foreign policy, which categorizes more and less important foreign policy spaces and issues. This typology contributes to foreign policy analysis's “middle-range” theorizing by establishing how and why the determinants, processes, and goals of foreign policy–making in these distinct types differ, and where policy-makers have the greatest ability to influence change in foreign policy. One of the key insights of this research relates to how structure and agency differently influence foreign policy–making: “core” foreign policy tends to be more structurally rigid and obtrusive, allowing less maneuverability for actor agency seeking to change the status quo, while “peripheral” foreign policy is less structurally rigid and obtrusive, allowing for greater actor agency in changing foreign policy direction and priorities. Hence, this typology should aid our understanding and prediction of foreign policy priorities and decisions.

scholarly journals LEGAL REGIME OF AUTONOMOUS TECHNICAL MEANS: CROSS CUTTING PROBLEMS OF LEGAL REGULATION

Issues of Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-45
Author(s):  
D. L. Kuteynikov ◽  
◽  
O. A. Izhaev ◽  
V. A. Lebedev ◽  
S. S. Zenin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Personhood ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Transparency And Accountability

This article suggests ways of resolving cross-cutting legal problems (legal personhood for autonomous technical means, transparency and accountability of its functioning, allocating of liability) that arise as a result of the use of autonomous technical means (ATM) in public. The granting of legal personhood for ATM depends on the public consent and social needs, which might be caused by necessity for transfer them a certain rights in order to improve their functioning. One of the ways to grant ATMsome elements of legal personhood is to assign it the status of an agent (representative) acting on behalf of the principal (individual or legal entity). Legal regulation of ATM transparency and accountability should, on the one hand, guarantee the right of an individual to receive information about the logic of the decision made in relation to him/her, and on the other hand– not violate the right of the manufacturer/operator to the secret of production (know-how). Lability for violations committed with the participation of ATM should be assigned depending on which subject (manufacturer, operator or user) had more control over the functioning of the ATM. The above mentioned methods of regulating legal relations and special sets of legal tools are elements of the legal regime of autonomous technical means. This legal regime will determine ways of legislation development in given sphere.

scholarly journals Legal status of child with disabilities as legal category of social security (part ІI)

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
pp. 40-60
Author(s):  
Stashkiv B.I. B.I. ◽  
◽  
Denysenko K. V. ◽  
Zinchuk Yu. О. ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Legal Representative ◽  
The Status ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
Special Rights ◽  
To Receive

The article is devoted to the study of such a legal category as the legal status of a child with disabilities in the field of social security, its structural elements, the relationship with the status of other categories of material support recipients. The authors conclude that the elements of the legal status of a child with disabilities are only his/her rights and responsibilities, which are realized by him/her through a legal representative or with hi/her active assistance. Freedom is not the subject of a study of social security law and is not part of a child’s legal status. Legal capacity indicates that a child with disabilities is a subject of social security law and has the rights and responsibilities provided by this branch of law since birth until reaching adulthood. In most cases, children with disabilities are not aware of the importance of their actions and cannot be guided by them, that is, to dispose of rights and responsibilities, and therefore they cannot be full-fledged subjects of social security relations. In such legal relations, they are often replaced by legal representatives. The special rights of a child with disabilities in the field of social protection are the child`s legal possibilities with the assistance of his/her legal representative to receive additional types of compensatory social security, which are associated with disability due to persistent dysfunction. In social security law, ensuring the responsibilities and violating of them rely on the child`s legal representative. Some responsibilities may be imposed on a child with disabilities when he/she receives social services, but in most cases he/she will be morally responsible for the violation. In the article the authors conditionally divided three categories of children with special needs: 1) children with disabilities; 2) children with serious illnesses who have not been diagnosed with disabilities; 3) children with mental or physical disabilities who have no grounds for establishing disability. Key words: the concept of the category “child with disabilities”, the procedure for establishing disability in children, elements of the legal status of a child with disabilities, rights and responsibilities of children with disabilities in social protection, social benefits for children with disabilities, social services for children with disabilities.

Issues of Law for Software Agents within Virtual Environments

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 741-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woodrow Barfield
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Software Agents ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Legal Personhood ◽  
The Status ◽  
Computing Environments ◽  
Basic Characteristics

A software agent is a computer program that operates within computing environments. The owners of software agents may instruct their agents to roam the networks, access desired information by exchanging data with other agents or people, and handle business and personal transactions. As the interactions between software agents and humans become more frequent, it is relevant to ask whether there are any issues of law that may guide their interactions and conduct. For example, as the agents become more intelligent and autonomous, who will be responsible for the mistakes that software agents make? Will software agents be allowed to contract with humans and with each other, and if so will such contracts be enforceable? And, will software agents have standing to sue and be sued? While there are a host of legal issues associated with software agents operating within virtual environments, the main issue addressed in this paper is whether software agents should be granted the legal rights associated with personhood. After discussing basic characteristics of software agents, and personhood in general, the paper concludes by outlining three possible scenarios that could represent the legal status of software agents in the future; these include the current status quo of property, the status of an indentured servant, and the status and associated rights of legal personhood.

Urgensi Ilmu Kedokteran Islam dengan Hukum Islam (Studi Identifikasi Deoxrybo Nucleic Acid (DNA) terhadap Sepersusuan)

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-146
Author(s):  
Li’izza Diana Manzil
Keyword(s):  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Breast Milk ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Medical Science ◽  
Dna Identification ◽  
Islamic Medicine ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
The Status ◽  
Brothers And Sisters

One sign of the rapidly growing world of medical science is its success in making one discovery about Deoxrybo Nucleid Acid (DNA). Islam does not prohibit the practice of DNA identification because it can be used in determining the legal status of relative relationships and related marital prohibitions among families because of the similarity of DNA genes between parents and their children. In Islam marriage prohibition can also occur between brothers and sisters. DNA identification can be done between siblings as a result of the presence of gene elements in breast milk. In addition, breast milk can also develop bone and grow meat if breastfeeding at least five times suction. But the results of DNA tests conducted between siblings cannot be more accurate if done to find relationships of parents and children. From this it clearly proves that Islamic medicine has an urgent value to Islamic law. This can be seen from one of its axiology in determining the status of brotherhood.

The Legal Status of Local Government in South Africa under the New Constitutional Dispensation

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mbuzeni Mathenjwa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
First Time

The history of local government in South Africa dates back to a time during the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. With regard to the status of local government, the Union of South Africa Act placed local government under the jurisdiction of the provinces. The status of local government was not changed by the formation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 because local government was placed under the further jurisdiction of the provinces. Local government was enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa arguably for the first time in 1993. Under the interim Constitution local government was rendered autonomous and empowered to regulate its affairs. Local government was further enshrined in the final Constitution of 1996, which commenced on 4 February 1997. The Constitution refers to local government together with the national and provincial governments as spheres of government which are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. This article discusses the autonomy of local government under the 1996 Constitution. This it does by analysing case law on the evolution of the status of local government. The discussion on the powers and functions of local government explains the scheme by which government powers are allocated, where the 1996 Constitution distributes powers to the different spheres of government. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on the legal status of local government within the new constitutional dispensation.

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