Ateneo - UPO

Content analysis of legal informatics, with special reference to the problems of artificial intelligence and its application to the legal field. Connected to the course is an international free mover project to be held in Nice from December 14-20, 2025. Information about the project will be provided during the first lectures of the course. Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/servicesstudents-physical-or-learning-disabilities Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

The course distinguishes between attending and non-attending students. For attending students, the text for the exam is G. Sartor, L'intelligenza artificiale e il diritto, Giappichelli, Torino 2022 and Lo schermo delle norme vol. 2 Male e libertà all’era delle acclamazioni digitali, Mimesis, 2025 and the parts indicated in class of vol. 3 Corologia affettiva e didattica immersiva. Esperienze e teorie, Mimesis, 2025. For non-attending students, the text for exam are G. Sartor, L'informatica giuridica e le tecnologie dell'informazione, Giappichelli, Torino 2022 and P. Heritier, Lo schermo delle norme vol. 2 Male e libertà all’era delle acclamazioni digitali Mimesis, 2025, and two papers of Vol. 3. Corologia affettiva e didattica immersiva. Esperienze e teorie, Mimesis, 2025.

Knowledge and Understanding - The course aims to analyze the textual and legal matrices of the notion of the network in the evolution of technological thought to arrive at an analysis of contemporary problems of the notion of law. Against some reductive and outdated readings, which think of law as the phenomenon of a norm set by the state that applies to a new technological context, there is a need to radically transform the conception of the role of the jurist within technological issues of information technology and artificial intelligence, in order to train legal professions capable of adopting a purposeful approach to the problems that rapid technological evolution poses to legal knowledge and computer scientists capable of understanding in depth the nature of legal science and its proximity to computer knowledge.

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Alongside traditional lectures, the course will include research activities aimed at developing critical reasoning skills. The course includes the use of images and video materials.

The exam will be oral, designed in conjunction with an exercise. The exam aims to assess the acquisition of critical reading skills, rather than mere rote learning. During the oral exam, students may optionally present a topic related to the course, based on their own critical analysis. There will be assessments of understanding of the course content during the lecture period.

Building on the social studies of science analyzed in the first part of the course, it will elaborate a notion of the network of law within the framework of general legal theory capable of taking up the reticular conception of the text found in the glossators, to the point of showing its proximity to the notion of hypertext underlying the HTLM language. At the same time, it will be shown how the recent evolution of legal knowledge and the increased role of jurisprudence configure the legal system as a reticular model that has profound affinities with the information theory epistemologically underlying the development of computer networks. The analysis will then focus on the link between the historical evolution of the notion of legal person and the more sensitive issues of internal and external social robotics and 'living with robots' as a specific feature of contemporary society. The course will analyze the impact of big data, surveillance capitalism, sentiment analysis, social networks, and the aesthetic and media component of the normative on the evolution of contemporary legal systems and the legislation governing these areas, with a focus on digital privacy, use of artificial intelligence, blockchain, and smart contracts.

Knowledge - Knowledge of the indicated topics, with emphasis on epistemology, hermeneutics and legal aesthetics, media theory, sentiment analysis, social robotics, use of AI for law. Development of independent critical skills in each of the indicated fields. Competencies - Development of critical skills related to the regulation of artificial intelligence in law, big data, digital and social network privacy. Development of autonomous source research and appropriate communication in scholarly and media contexts on these topics. Skills - Development of basic legal competence in the analysis of social interaction and the human-machine relationship, ability to identify hidden legal problems in the adoption of innovative technologies, improved ability to communicate effectively in an interdisciplinary design and programming context with experts of knowledge different from one's own.