Professor Paul De Hert -Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Transcript:Professor Paul De Hert -Vrije Universiteit Brussel:
Professor Paul De Hert -Vrije Universiteit Brussel – University of Tilburg 09-05-2025 | 1 Presumption of innocence, moral realism and modern law; how to handle the crowbar in the digital age? . ECLAN 2025 Annual Conference on "The Presumption of Innocence: Modern Trends and Contemporary Challenges", University of Latvia in Riga on 15-16 May 2025. structure Titel van dia 15-05-2025 | 2 My interest in presumption of innocence as protection of the innocent: a“practical demand” for individuals to have an“effective protection from the depredation of criminality and a reasonable measure of security to go about heir lawful business unmolested Short about what AI does to the rule of law Why did i not like reading Kafka MacIntyre, Western law as a theater of illusions not serving the individual Why reading Voltaire again and his contemporary nephew Markus Gabriel Some recommendations for a moral reflection about the presumption as a moral command in the digital age that works with technologies with an error rate What AI does to the rule of law Public authorities are increasingly turning to algorithmic regulation, or the use of algorithmic systems to apply and enforce the law. desire to improve public services and to better fulfill citizens’ rights, thus seemingly contributing to the rule of law. However, in practice, many use cases have demonstrated how reliance on algorithmic systems can undermine the law’s protective power and instead lead to rule by law. This risk is hence neither hypothetical, nor limited to authoritarian regimes. In Europe, the creation of the European Union’s AI Act offered a beacon of hope to address this concern, yet EU legislators ultimately failed to take it into account in their regulation. Nathalie Smuha therefore argues that there is a significant misalignment between the EU’s digital agenda and its rule of law agenda, which urgently needs to be addressed to counter the threat of algorithmic rule by law. I want to make a small contribution focussing on criminal law provisions Titel van dia 15-05-2025 | 3 N. Smuha, Algorithmic Rule By Law. How Algorithmic Regulation in the Public Sector Erodes the Rule of Law, CUP, 2024 The Conditionality Regulation, adopted in December 2020, allows the suspension of payments and budgetary commitments to Member States in which breaches of the rule of law 'affect or seriously risk affecting' the management of EU funds. Interesting is her definition of rule of law Titel van dia