Artificial Intelligence and Law Group

The ICT Law and Artificial Intelligence and Law Group

Among the several scientific groups who work at CIRSFID, the ICT Law and Artificial Intelligence and Law Group has a strong scientific background, and a long-term experience in the interdisciplinary field of computer science and law. The ICT Law and Artificial Intelligence and Law Group began its activity in 1986 and up till now has taken part in several Italian and European projects. The research group includes both lawyers and experts coming from the faculties of engineering, business, philosophy and information science.

Main topics
The ICT Law and Artificial Intelligence and Law Group activities concern the legal issues connected with the development and use of new technologies, with special reference to the following areas:

Intellectual Property in the Information Society
Electronic Commerce
Electronic signatures and documents
Privacy and data protection
Legal aspects of intelligent agents and multi-agent systems
Dispute resolution and management in virtual environments
Security and trust in open systems
Virtual and electronic institutions

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the Information Society - software, databases, multimedia, open source software and open standards, Digital Rights Management (DRM) and technological protection measures, protection of users' rights, Internet and new media (electronic publishing, linking, framing, P2P, etc.), domain names.

Electronic commerce - provision of Information Society Services, validity of on-line contracts, consumer protection, e-contract integrity and authenticity, contracts made by software agents, electronic procurement, providers' liability, etc.

Electronic signatures and documents - use of cryptography-based electronic signatures for identification and confidentiality purposes, the legal and evidentiary relevance of electronic documents, electronic and optical archiving, electronic invoicing.

Privacy and data protection - processing of personal data and protection of the privacy rights of natural and legal persons, data processing made through electronic means, security aspects and technological measures.

Legal aspects of intelligent agents and multi-agent systems - legal nature of intelligent agents and MAS, civil and criminal liability of agents in e-commerce, knowledge management and business networks, use of information collected by agents, negotiations and e-contracts made through agents.

Expert Systems - techno-legal issues of the development and use of legal rule-based systems to support the activities of legal professionals, judges and decision-makers.

Dispute resolution and management in virtual environments - alternative resolution and management of disputes arising from ICT-based interactions, on-line dispute resolution.

Security and trust in open systems - impact of security and trust on e-commerce and ICT-based interactions, violation of trust, rationalisation of trust, ICT applied to security and trust management.

Virtual Organisations - techno-legal aspects of the ICT-enabled collaboration between enterprises for the achievement of specific business goals/projects.

Virtual and electronic institutions - the adoption of norms (both regulative and constitutive) and legal concepts, i.e., obligations, permissions and prohibitions for governing agent interactions in multi-agent systems and their encapsulation in infrastructural abstractions.