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Hyperdimensional Modelling of the Legal System in Digital Society

Project description

A digital legal system preserving EU legal traditions

In 2020 the New Zealand government proposed to the OECD-OPSI the adoption of a coding methodology (Cracking Code report) to create a macro-schema of Law. This would be legally binding and generate legal text in natural language, backed by legal theory and artificial intelligence (AI) and Law literature. As digital artefacts (IoT, smart contracts, AI) need consumable Law for rapid decisions, often without human intervention (bots), the proposal attracted wide attention. However, this method can endanger legal heritage, democratic principles, and institutional foundations concerning the EU Law and Human Rights traditions. The EU-funded HyperModeLex project will create a solid legal theoretical framework to allow the serialisation of Law in a machine-consumable format preserving legal robustness.

Objective

In 2018, the Government of New Zealand started a project called Rules as Code. In 2020, it proposed to OECD-OPSI the adoption of coding methodology (see Cracking Code report) to create a macro-schema of Law, legally binding, that generates legal text in natural language. It resembles a reverse engineering approach with respect to the predominant method. It is backed by legal theory and AI&Law literature, where the digitalization of Legal Sources is performed from the legal provisions, expressed in natural language, to its formal-logic representation (AI&Law, LegalXML). MIT, Stanford CodeX, Australia & Canada governments are investigating this new direction using language programming (e.g. Java, Python). The intuition seems fascinating, especially in the infosphere where digital artefacts (e.g. IoT, smart contract, AI) need consumable Law to take rapid decisions (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic) often without human intervention (e.g. bots). However, such an approach can jeopardize legal heritage, democratic principles, institutional foundations, in the context of civil-law theory and EU Law & Human Rights traditions. This approach seems to neglect 30 years of AI&Law literature, legal theory foundations, philosophy of law and language, to foster a model of technocracy and efficiency. As the topic calls for timely actions, we aim to create a solid legal theoretical framework to allow the serialization of Law in machine-consumable format while preserving legal soundness. The output is a digital legal system framework (HyperModeLex) that produces a traced process of digital law-making system, in machine-consumable format (XML, RDF, coding), legally binding, executable, suitable for connected infosphere artefacts (IoT, smart contract, software, bot) and in the meantime explicable to human, using dialogic legal design approach. We need an interdisciplinary ground-breaking project to assemble various competencies, different disciplines from human and computer sciences.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2021-ADG

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Host institution

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 494 509,00
Address
VIA ZAMBONI 33
40126 Bologna
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Emilia-Romagna Bologna
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 494 509,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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