No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Regulating the future? Law, ethics, and emerging technologies
Abstract
Purpose
– The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the legal implications which may be relevant to the ethical aspects of emerging technologies, to explore the existing situation in the area of legal regulation at EU level, and to formulate recommendations for the lawmakers.
Design/methodology/approach
– The analysis is based on the premise that the law is supposed to invoke moral principles. Speculative findings are formulated on the basis of analyzing specific emerging technologies; empirical findings are based on a research conducted in the whole legal corpus of the EU.
Findings
– In the area of network‐based technologies the already existing and elaborated legal frameworks can be used in an extended manner; artificial intelligence‐based technologies call for alterations in several branches of law; while interface technologies show the difficulty and complexity of regulating interdisciplinary fields. The legal implications of emerging technologies have attracted only a minimal legislative attention in the competent bodies of the EU.
Originality/value
– The paper provides a systemic approach towards transmitting ethical norms to the application of emerging technologies through legal regulation, and formulates detailed recommendations in various areas of such technologies.
... Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) can create regulatory gaps, such as when they allow new practices or present the possibility of new consequences (Mandel, 2009). This issue can require constructing new regulatory institutions or adjusting those that already exist (Beaumier et al., 2020;Scherer, 2015;Székely et al., 2011). A key challenge in regulating emerging technologies lies in avoiding harmful effects and ensuring the technology is deployed in a socially desirable way (Braun & Wield, 1994) while also being innovation friendly (Butenko & Larouche, 2015;Butler et al., 2023;Finck, 2018;Henningsson & Eaton, 2023;Mandel, 2009). ...
... Technology neutrality refers to regulating technology in such way that is does not discriminate against any specific technology and can apply to both offline and online technologies (Koops, 2006). It is widely adopted in lawmaking, including in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), and is intended to make room for technological development and innovation (Reed, 2007;Székely et al., 2011). The US Government's Framework for Global Electronic Commerce states that "rules should be technology-neutral (i.e., the rules should neither require nor assume a particular technology) and forward looking (i.e., the rules should not hinder the use or development of technologies in the future)" (The White House, 1997). ...
... We contribute to the literature on regulating emerging technologies (e.g., Brownsword et al., 2017;Butler et al., 2023;Kokshagina et al., 2023;Mandel, 2009;Székely et al., 2011)-or, more broadly, the literature on regulation in the context of sociotechnical change (Bennett Moses, 2017)-by focusing on the process of making sense of emerging technologies in order to regulate them, i.e., by focusing on the procedural instead of the substantive aspect of constructing regulatory institutions. Our focus is on the regulation of technology (e.g., Kokshagina et al., 2023) rather than through technology (e.g., De Vaujany et al., 2018; also see Butler et al., 2023). ...
Emerging digital technologies require regulation that will avoid harmful effects but that also, ideally, fosters innovation. We report on a case study of how actors, representing a variety of perspectives (legal, regulatory authority, government, industry, and technology), interacted to construct a law on trustworthy technology in the European state of Liechtenstein. This regulatory construction was enabled by collective prospective sensemaking relying on the interrelated processes of abstraction and elaboration, through which actors collectively reconceptualized the regulatory target in terms of the technology (from blockchain to trustworthy technology), its uses (from cryptocurrency to token economy), and required roles (from financial service provider roles to trustworthy technology systems roles). Abstraction allowed the group of actors to extract and generalize essential properties to support the regulatory goals of technology neutrality and innovation-friendliness. Elaboration allowed the group to identify and specify details and requirements to support the regulatory goals of creating legal certainty and protecting users. Through these processes, actors could construct a shared, collective understanding that accommodated various viewpoints and paved the way for writing a law. From this case study, we develop a theory of collective prospective sensemaking in regulating emerging technologies.
... Although there is not enough empirical evidence that ICTs reduce corruption, some researches have found significant effects of the use of technology on Citizens' perception of corruption [24], [25]. Furthermore, efficiency is an important factor, helped by ICTs, that improves interoperability between agencies, cuts bureaucratic barriers, reduces time and cost, and increases quality of services [26]- [28]. ...
... Székely, Szabó y Vissy, classified emergent technologies in three main groups, based on operation, configuration and use: (1) Internet technologies, (2) interface technologies, and (3) artificial intelligence technologies [28]. ...
This study is based on the conceptualization of Electronic Government (E-Government) as the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) applied in Government. However there is a lack of studies on areas of emerging technologies. In particular, this research is situated in the field of E-Government, often called digital government or virtual government. The research is based on the dynamic interaction between emerging technologies and organizational factors in governmental agencies of a developing country, in order to answer two questions: What emerging technology factors mediated by organizational variables of government agencies facilitate transparency and efficiency, and reduce corruption in governments? How do these technological, organizational factors interact and affect transparency, efficiency and corruption? with the perspective of the Technology Enactment Theory. Methodology is based on two study cases of the State of Mexico. Preliminary results have found an existing lack of studies in the area of emergent technologies in government, and citizens' perception based on E-Government tools that could be useful to improve government services.
... This has resulted in less attacks adding value to both the users and firms. The artificial intelligence-based technologies call for alterations in several branches of law; while interface technologies show the difficulty and complexity of regulating interdisciplinary fields, [23,24,26]. The usage of AI technologies in the field of mechanical engineering has potential to revolutionize traditional design, manufacturing, and maintenance processes. ...
The world has witnessed rapid technological transformation, past couple of decades and with Advent of Cloud computing the landscape evolved exponentially leading to efficient and scalable application development. Now, the past couple of years the digital ecosystem has brought in numerous innovations with integration of Artificial Intelligence commonly known as AI. This paper explores how AI and cloud computing intersect to deliver transformative capabilities for modernizing applications by providing services and infrastructure. Harnessing the combined potential of both AI & Cloud technologies, technology providers can now exploit intelligent resource management, predictive analytics, automated deployment & scaling with enhanced security leading to offering innovative solutions to their customers. Furthermore, by leveraging such technologies of cloud & AI businesses can reap rich rewards in the form of reducing operational costs and improving service delivery. This paper further addresses challenges associated such as data privacy concerns and how it can be mitigated with robust AI governance frameworks.
... An important reason for the implementation of ethical perspectives in the context of emerging technologies is the emphasis on the potential high stakes, high expectations, and sizable amount of future unknowns surrounding these technologies [53,54]. This is important for policy-makers because it captures aspirations for a more prosperous future on the one hand (e.g. in the form of economic growth), while also representing contradictory and contested understandings of what that future might entail [55]. ...
In recent years, the European Union has made considerable efforts to develop dedicated strategies and policies for the governance of robotics and AI. An important component of the EU’s approach is its emphasis on the need to mitigate the potential societal impacts of the expected rise in the interactive capacities of autonomous systems. In the quest to define and implement new policies addressing this issue, ethical notions have taken an increasingly central position. This paper presents a concise overview of the integration of this ethics narrative in the EU’s policy plans. It demonstrates how the ethics narrative aids the definition of policy issues and the establishment of new policy ideas. Crucially, in this context, robotics and AI are explicitly understood as emerging technologies. This implies many ambiguities about their actual future impact, which in turn results in uncertainty regarding effective implementation of policies that draw on the ethics narrative. In an effort to develop clearer pathways towards the further development of ethical notions in AI and robotics governance, this paper understands human-robot interaction (HRI) research as a field that can play an important role in the implementation of ethics. Four different complementary pathways towards ethics integration in (HRI) research are proposed, namely: providing insights for the improvement of ethical assessment, further research into the moral competence of artificial agents, engage in value-based design and implementation of robots, and participation in discussions on building ethical sociotechnical systems around robots.
... An overview of the legal implications relevant to the ethical aspects of emerging technologies was provided in (Ivan, et al., 2011). The paper explored the existing situation in the area of legal regulation at EU level, and formulated recommendations for the lawmakers. ...
Technological emergence and advancement over the decades in information and communication technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, 3D printing, internet of things and the next generation telecommunication networks such as 5G, big-data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about immeasurable global transformation. However, regulating these emerging technologies has been challenging for policy makers, governments and regulatory agencies. The environmental risk presented by these emerging technologies is often misunderstood and unaccepted until the technologies are duly developed and its applications otherwise proved. With the eruption of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), various conspiracies have connected 5G to the spread of COVID-19, stating that the installation 5G facilities will emit radiation waves thereby weakening the immune system. This misinformation among others, poses a major challenge for government, regulatory agencies and policy makers in regulating emerging technology.
... Они полагают, что правовая наука должна выработать адекватную стратегию регулирования различных сценариев, касающихся разработки и применения новых технологий. Должны быть созданы адекватные форумы для обеспечения регулярного общения между законодателями и другими заинтересованными сторонами (исследователями, разработчиками, поставщиками услуг, пользователями) в области современных технологий [8]. ...
The development of modern technologies, the creation of artificial intelligence have posed new problems for humanity. Is the methodological potential of legal science sufficient to comprehend modern phenomena and predict positive and negative consequences for society? The proposed article attempts to modernize the cognitive model by expanding the scope of an interdisciplinary approach. This is a new research paradigm - the interdisciplinarity of a new order. As an illustration, the plot of the “penetration” of artificial intelligence in jurisprudence is given, the question is raised about the risks of violation of human values and measures to prevent them.
... According to [14] the artificial intelligence-based technologies call for alterations in several branches of law; while interface technologies show the difficulty and complexity of regulating interdisciplinary fields. ...
... Development of such a framework would demand assessments of ethics that are flexible in their application and lend themselves to ethical evaluations across cultures. Legal rules, institutional solutions and national policies (Sen, 2001;Sz ekely et al., 2011) are one way in which ethical norms, principles and obligations are expressed and necessitate seeking out commonalities and pragmatic agreements based on shared interests (Ess, 2007) for the global good. Whilst variances in cultural context and local need are important considerations, identifying ethical issues at an earlier stage in the development process is advantageous. ...
This paper evaluates the potential benefits, drawbacks and ethical risks of cloud computing for African countries in the context of information communication technologies for development (ICT4D). The paper argues that the capability approach, incorporating development ethics, provides a useful framework for considering the ethics of cloud computing in Africa. Coupled with global and intercultural ethics perspectives, both provide a rich human-centred view of the technology's benefits, drawbacks and ethical risks. Focussing on the transformational benefits and features of cloud computing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the health sector, the paper highlights potential ethical risks that are cause for concern. The paper concludes that while cloud computing has considerable potential for advancing development through the enhancement of capabilities, there remain huge challenges in its efficient, effective and ethical use. As a result, ethical risks related to equity, ownership, dependency, privacy, trust and security that reflect ‘unfreedoms’ and ‘capability deprivations’ may consequently have an impact on the technology's potential as an information communication technology for development.
... However, there is a lack of studies focusing on specific emerging technologies which include large transformative and revolutionary impact projects in different areas [17]. Székely, Szabó and Vissy [18] classified emerging technologies into three groups, according to performance, configuration and operation: 1) technologies based on network (ambient intelligence, network computing and Internet of the future); 2) interface technologies "cyborg" (human symbiosis -machine, neuro -electronics, bio -electronic, virtual and augmented reality); and 3) technologies based on artificial intelligence (cognitive systems, advanced robotics and affective computing). Gutwirth and Friedewald [13] consider emerging technologies as: 1) biometric software, 2) sequencing DNA, 3) drones, and 4) human enhancement technologies. ...
Technologies have evolved very fast in the last years and the use of these new technologies (emerging technologies) have been widely adopted in public administrations. The research reported in this paper follows a qualitative approach applied to three municipalities, focusing on current events in order to answer two question: Which emerging technologies are used by municipal governments in the State of Mexico? and How do these emerging technologies interact with organizational forms and outputs in municipal governments of the State of Mexico? Based on the Fountain's Technology Enactment Theory, semi-structured interviews were conducted to ten participants. Findings show that emerging technologies in developing countries improve organizational efficiency, create new communication channels, break bureaucratic barriers, and help the decision-making process. Technology, boosted by laws, increases transparency, improves Government to Citizen interaction (G2C). Mobile technology is an important tool to generate emergent communication channels within organizations and to improve G2C. The dynamic interaction between emerging technologies, organizational forms and outcomes in municipalities in the State of Mexico, is driven by legislation. Technology Enactment Theory represents a suitable framework to study the interaction between technologies and organizations, especially in governments. However, with the evolution of governments, they are developing different kinds of technologies oriented to service delivery. So, it is important to add the citizenship component, in order to answer questions such as those generated in the current research. It is important to identify the answers to this kind of questions and it is also important to identify good practices, policies, and technology's implementation, that could be applied in similar governments, in order to have success in E-Government's projects.
... This fact, catalyzed by the significant speed of new technology roll-outs, creates more or less constant policy vacuums (Moor 2005). In other words, once new technologies have been fully established, the only legal leverage left is to regulate their use in order to contain their consequences (Székely et al. 2011). ...
This paper seeks to address research governance by highlighting the notion of public accountability as a complementary tool for the establishment of an ethical resonance space for emerging technologies. Public accountability can render development and design process of emerging technologies transparent through practices of holding those in charge of research accountable for their actions, thereby fostering ethical engagement with their potential negative consequences or side-effects. Through practices such as parliamentary questions, audits, and open letters emerging technologies could be effectively rendered transparent and opened up to broader levels of scrutiny and debate, thereby contributing to a greater adherence of emerging technologies to ethics and moral consensus. Fundamental democratic practices could thus not only lead to better informed choices in design and development processes, but also contribute to more morally substantive outcomes.
... As Widmer (2009) notes, it is no longer possible to establish which data protection authority has jurisdiction or oversight for the implementation of data protection requirements in a particular context. Szekely, Szabo & Vissy (2011) state that as technology becomes increasingly globalized so too do its ethical implications. Górniak-Kocikowska (2007) argues that typically, societies develop their own ethical systems by which the members of that particular society are expected to live. ...
As private and public sector organizations seek to develop policies
and to manage the remodelling and restyling of their e-services, the
‘cloud’ arouses much interest and attention. ‘Cloud’ computing
suppliers provide not only a service to store data on behalf of
customers but also provide applications and data analysis services.
The paper’s purpose is to examine how business organizations can
address the risks in using ‘cloud’ computing, offering new insights
from the legal profession as an analogy. An inductive interpretivist
narrative is used with the conclusion providing new insight and a
distinctive contribution into how businesses can be guided by the legal
profession in its use of ‘cloud’ computing technology, and the reality
that information whether in electronic or physical form is susceptible to
theft, loss or inadvertent disclosure.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that generate public value in e-government services through emerging technologies and to answer the following question: Which are the factors that generate public value, in the e-government services, through emerging technologies?
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a multivariate linear regression model, the author tests the public value of e-government services through emerging technologies in the metropolitan area of the Toluca Valley. Five factors are evaluated to understand public value: anti-corruption strategies, access to public information, transparency platforms, social media and service kiosks.
Findings
Smart strategies and technologies must be guided by the generation of public value through anti-corruption strategies, open data, access to information and data privacy. The efforts of governments should focus on avoiding corruption, making government transparent, opening data and correct handling of information privacy. Technology is an important mechanism to boost public value generation.
Research limitations/implications
Mexico is a developing country, and there are very few emerging technologies implemented in e-Government.
Practical implications
The results are important to identify good practices for the generation of public value in the e-Government area.
Originality/value
The study of emerging technologies is a new area in government, and this paper studies the generation of public value through emerging technologies in a developing country.
Privacy and security have long been framed as incommensurable concepts that had to be traded off against each other. While such a notion is rather under-complex, it has been quite persistent. In recent years, however, the relation has undergone a transformation and is now apparently conceived of as a technological issue that is set to be resolved through privacy by design. This paper retraces, through an analysis of EU security research funding, how this shift has come about, and critically assesses its potential to eventually resolve the conflict between privacy and security in a world of data-driven security measures.
Empirical research has revealed disparities of internet users’ online privacy attitudes and online privacy behaviors. Although users express concerns about disclosing personal data in the internet, they share personal and sometimes intimate details of their and others lives in various online environments. This may possibly be explained by the knowledge gap hypothesis which states that people are concerned about their privacy and would like to behave accordingly, but that lacking privacy literacy prevents them from reacting the ways that they think would most adequately reflect their attitudes and needs. To implement privacy literacy in future research and policy making, a comprehensive scale to measure privacy literacy will be suggested. The online privacy literacy scale (OPLIS) was developed based on an exhaustive review of prior literature on privacy literacy and a profound content analysis of different sources capturing a variety of aspects relevant to online privacy. The scale encompasses five dimensions of online privacy literacy: (1) Knowledge about practices of organizations, institutions and online service providers; (2) Knowledge about technical aspects of online privacy and data protection; (3) Knowledge about laws and legal aspects of online data protection in Germany; (4) Knowledge about European directives on privacy and data protection; and (5) Knowledge about user strategies for individual privacy regulation.
This paper posits that ethical dilemma scenarios are a useful instrument to provoke policy‐makers and other stakeholders, to including industry, in considering the privacy, ethical, social and other implications of new and emerging technologies. It describes a methodology for constructing and deconstructing such scenarios and provides four such scenarios in an orthogonal relationship with each other. The paper describes some different, but closely related scenario construction–deconstruction methodologies, which formed the basis for the methodology adopted in the European Commission-funded PRESCIENT project. The paper makes the point that in ethical dilemma scenarios, it is not immediately apparent what choices policy‐makers should select. Hence, there is a need for undertaking a privacy and ethical impact assessment and engaging stakeholders in the process to identify and discuss the issues raised in the scenarios.
The present paper surveys the prospects and possibilities of regulating the application areas of Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) – or in a broader sense, of influencing the future way of life – at the intersection of law, technology and society. It dissects the anticipated further erosion of personal privacy – the focus area of the essay – caused by technological developments and related interests. After sketching out an ironic dystopia, in which the idea of transparency is foisted upon the public by future technological developments, the author contemplates the relationships between legal regulation and the underlying values in the predictable but unknowable milieu of future life conditions. While studying the immutability of fundamental values, the author offers a brief survey of the role of public opinion, as well as of the limitations of taking into account the majority opinion, followed by a thought experiment about the possible ways of regulating the “Code”, approaching it from the direction of two fundamental rights, the right to human dignity and the freedom of academic research. After reaching conflicting conclusions and making a few suggestions about possible ways to regulate the area, the author makes a proposal about the introduction of a small-scale experimental tool, metaphorically named as a predictive learning model of regulation. Despite the difficulties and the uncertainties, the essay's overall perspective on the role of legal regulation is not a pessimistic one, as long as it is used flexibly and in conjunction with other means of regulation.
Location-based services (LBS) are defined as those applications that combine the location of a mobile device associated with a given entity (individual or object) together with contextual information to offer a value-added service. LBS solutions are being deployed globally, and in some markets like Australia, without appropriate regulatory provisions in place. Recent debates in Australia have addressed the need to bridge the gap between technological developments and legal/regulatory provisions. This requires an assessment of the regulatory environment within a given social context such as Australia. The core components of such an investigation include: (a) composing a conceptual framework for analysing regulation of technologies such as LBS, one that is sensitive to public policy themes and challenges, and (b) applying this conceptual framework to the Australian setting in order to sketch and define the components of the present framework, and identify areas for improvement through a process of validation. This paper addresses these aims, demonstrating how the current regulatory framework in Australia is bound by legislation with respect to privacy, telecommunications, surveillance, and national security (that is, anti-terrorism), in addition to a set of industry guidelines for location-service providers (LSPs). The existing Australian framework, however, is lacking in its coverage and treatment of LBS and location data, and does not adequately address the themes and challenges in the defined conceptual framework.
It has often been asserted that technology neutrality is the proper approach to ICT regulation, but those making this assertion use the concept in a number of divergent senses. This article analyses those different meanings and asks whether technology neutrality really is as desirable as motherhood and apple pie, and whether it does in fact achieve the goals desired by legislators.
This paper proposes a framework for an ethical impact assessment which can be performed in regard to any policy, service,
project or programme involving information technology. The framework is structured on the four principles posited by Beauchamp
and Childress together with a separate section on privacy and data protection. The framework identifies key social values
and ethical issues, provides some brief explanatory contextual information which is then followed by a set of questions aimed
at the technology developer or policy-maker to facilitate consideration of ethical issues, in consultation with stakeholders,
which may arise in their undertaking. In addition, the framework includes a set of ethical tools and procedural practices
which can be employed as part of the ethical impact assessment. Although the framework has been developed within a European
context, it could be applied equally well beyond European borders.
KeywordsEthical impact assessment–Ethical issues–Ethical tools–Respect for autonomy–Nonmaleficence–Beneficence–Justice
This paper presents the principal findings from a three-year research project funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) on ethics of human enhancement technologies. To help untangle this ongoing debate, we have organized the discussion as a list of questions and answers, starting with background issues and moving to specific concerns, including: freedom & autonomy, health & safety, fairness & equity, societal disruption, and human dignity. Each question-and-answer pair is largely self-contained, allowing the reader to skip to those issues of interest without affecting continuity.
The question of what constitutes the good life has been pondered for millennia. Yet only in the last decades has the study of well-being become a scientific endeavor. This book is based on the idea that we can empirically study quality of life and make cross-society comparisons of subjective well-being (SWB).
A potential problem in studying SWB across societies is that of cultural relativism: if societies have different values, the members of those societies will use different criteria in evaluating the success of their society. By examining, however, such aspects of SWB as whether people believe they are living correctly, whether they enjoy their lives, and whether others important to them believe they are living well, SWB can represent the degree to which people in a society are achieving the values they hold dear.
The contributors analyze SWB in relation to money, age, gender, democracy, and other factors. Among the interesting findings is that although wealthy nations are on average happier than poor ones, people do not get happier as a wealthy nation grows wealthier.
Bradford Books imprint
The world has become familiar with the unprecedented growth of surveillance after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but a comprehensive analysis of the public's opinion of how their privacy is being protected or invaded has been unavailable - until now. Surveillance, Privacy, and the Globalization of Personal Information reports the findings of an international survey of citizens' experiences with newly implemented security measures and their perceptions about privacy issues. Covering a range of countries from China, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico to the United States, Canada, Spain, France, and Hungary, this volume reveals the similarities and differences among populations in their reactions to the surveillance era and in the amount each knows about government monitoring. Topics deal with pertinent issues such as global, national, and local transfer of personal information about citizens' financial transactions, work, and travel. The authors also analyse the collaboration of government and the private sector in the collection and transfer of private information. A remarkable resource in understanding attitudes towards surveillance, security, and privacy, Surveillance, Privacy, and the Globalization of Personal Information is indispensable for anyone curious about what governments, the private sector, and citizens know about each other.
This book explains and defends the concept of the rule of law as an ideal of constitutionalism, and discusses the general principles of public law set in the broader perspective of legal and political philosophy. Although primarily an essay in constitutional theory, its practical implications are fully explained by reference to case-law examples. Drawing on the experience of a number of common law countries - especially Britain, the United States, and Australia - this book seeks to identify the common elements of a shared constitutional framework that provides the foundations, in each case, of a liberal democratic legal order. These common foundations include certain constraints on the exercise of state power, challenging the widespread view that the rule of law should be conceived as a purely procedural ideal. The book explains the essential connections between a range of matters critical to the relationship between citizen and state, including freedoms of speech and conscience, civil disobedience, procedural fairness, administrative justice, the right of silence, and equal protection or equality before the law. The limits of parliamentary sovereignty are shown to derive from its status as a common law doctrine, when the common law is interpreted as a deliberative process of moral argument and justification. Legislative supremacy is qualified by a counter-balancing judicial sovereignty, ensuring the protection of fundamental common law rights of procedural fairness and equality.
Although it is currently the most important political ideal, there is much confusion about what the 'rule of law' means and how it works. Brian Tamanaha outlines the concerns of Western conservatives about the decline of the rule of law and suggests reasons why the radical Left have promoted this decline. Two basic theoretical streams of the rule of law are then presented, with an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of each. The book's examination of the rule of law on a global level concludes by deciding whether the rule of law is a universal human good.
This article is a chapter in a book that critically examines prevalent policy one-liners for ICT regulation. In this case, the statement 'ICT regulation should be technology-neutral' is analysed. It starts with an overview of e-policies that mention this as a starting point. Next, the various components of the starting point and its potential meanings are analysed, in order to better define what is meant by the starting point. Three cases are explored that show how the starting point works in practice: electronic signatures, the constitutional right to secrecy of communications, and misuse of devices in cybercrime and DRM systems. A set of criteria is given to elaborate the starting point; these criteria can be used to assess whether and to what extent the starting point can be put into practice in concrete cases. Subsequently, the article indicates how the starting point could be effected in such cases. Finally, an assessment is made to what extent the starting point is useful. It is interpreted as being most relevant from a legislative point of view: legislation should abstract away from concrete technologies to the extent that it is sufficiently sustainable and at the same provides sufficient legal certainty. Depending on a number of criteria, such as the goal of the regulation at issue, the nature and turbulence of the technology at stake, the urgency of providing legal certainty, and the scope for interpreting the regulation, there are several ways to deal with this trade-off. Through multi-level legislation, open-ended formulations, and a mixed approach of abstract and concrete rules that are periodically evaluated, adequate legal certainty with respect to current technologies may be ensured, while at the same time sufficient scope is given for future technological developments.
War robots clearly hold tremendous advantages-from saving the lives of our own soldiers, to safely defusing roadside bombs, to operating in inaccessible and dangerous environments such as mountainside caves and underwater. Without emotions and other liabilities on the battlefield, they could conduct warfare more ethically and effectively than human soldiers who are susceptible to overreactions, anger, vengeance, fatigue, low morale, and so on. But the use of robots, especially autonomous ones, raises a a host of ethical and risk issues. This paper offers a a survey of such emerging issues in this new but rapidly advancing area of technology.
Postcommunist civil society in comparative perspective: an empirical baseline
- M M Howard
JRC Annual Report 2000
- Joint Research Centre
Democracy and Political Culture in Eastern Europe
- H.-D Klingemann
- D Fuchs
- J Zielonka
The unique nature of the concepts of western law
- J C Smith
Central and eastern europe: starting from scratch
- I Székely
Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA)
- United States of America
Cloud computing and data protection
- U Widmer
Freedoms' Law: The Moral Reading of the American Constitution
- R Dworkin
European Parliament recommendation of 26 March 2009 to the council on strengthening security and fundamental freedoms on the internet”, available at: www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc
- European Parliament
Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data”
- European Union
Gartner global IT council for cloud services outlines rights and responsibilities for cloud computing services
- Gartner
The Right to Know Transparency for an Open World Changing attitudes in a changing society? Information privacy in Hungary Regulating the future?
- I Szé
- Ny
- I Szé
Szé, I. (2007), " Central and eastern europe: starting from scratch ", in Florini, A. (Ed.), The Right to Know. Transparency for an Open World, Columbia University Press, New York, NY. Szé, I. (2010), " Changing attitudes in a changing society? Information privacy in Hungary 1989–2006 ", in Zureik, E., Harling Stalker, L., Smith, E., Lyon, D. and Chan, Y.E. (Eds), Surveillance, Privacy and the Globalization of Personal Information. International Comparisons, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, pp. 150-70. Regulating the future? Tamanaha, B.Z. (2004), On the Rule of Law. History, Politics, Theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. United States of America (1986), " Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) ", 18 U.S.C. § 2510-22, available at: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_ 20_119.html (accessed 6 March 2011).
The Moral Reading of the American Constitution Law and Morality: Readings in Legal Philosophy European Parliament recommendation of 26 March 2009 to the council on strengthening security and fundamental freedoms on the internet
- R Dworkin
- Ma Dyzenhaus
- D Moreau Reibetanz
- S And Ripstein
Dworkin, R. (1996), Freedoms' Law: The Moral Reading of the American Constitution, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Dyzenhaus, D., Moreau Reibetanz, S. and Ripstein, A. (Eds) (2007), Law and Morality: Readings in Legal Philosophy, University of Toronto Press, Toronto. European Parliament (2009), " European Parliament recommendation of 26 March 2009 to the council on strengthening security and fundamental freedoms on the internet ", available at: www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef¼-//EP//TEXTþTAþP6-TA-2009-0194þ0 þ DOCþXMLþV0//EN (accessed 6 March 2011).
The Liberal Theory of the Rule of Law Ethics of human enhancement: 25 questions and answers International agreements to protect personal data Global Privacy Protection: The First Generation
- T R S Allan
- Ny
- F Allhoff
- P Lin
- J Moor
- J Weckert
- L A Bygrave
Allan, T.R.S. (2003), Constitutional Justice: The Liberal Theory of the Rule of Law, Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Allhoff, F., Lin, P., Moor, J. and Weckert, J. (2011), " Ethics of human enhancement: 25 questions and answers ", Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology, Vol. 4 No. 1, Article 4, available at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article¼1003&context¼phil_fac (accessed 6 March). JICES 9,3 Bygrave, L.A. (2008), " International agreements to protect personal data ", in Rule, J.B. and Greenleaf, G. (Eds), Global Privacy Protection: The First Generation, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 15-49.
Law and Morality: Readings in Legal Philosophy
- D Dyzenhaus
- S Moreau Reibetanz
- A Ripstein