ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MACHINE LEARNING AND LAW
Stefano Russo, Alessandro Del Ninno
Instructional goals
Legal Informatics of the LUISS master's degree in Law, which is made up of five preparatory laboratories and a course spread over the first three years. These teaching classes constitute a unitary and progressive path according to a logical itinerary studied in order to implement the student's sensitivity for the mutual interaction between information technology and law. The intent is to train a jurist who can be ready to face the legal challenges of the digital dimension, increasingly pervasive and transversal in every professional sector, and of IT applications in the legal sector. To this end, the student will also have to acquire purely technical and IT knowledge to fully understand the technological phenomena of which he or she may be required to evaluate the legal implications and effects. This is a strategic goal that the Department of Law has set itself, as it is impossible to imagine the figure of a jurist today who is not fully familiar with digital tools and is unable to analyze the impact of the most disruptive technological applications on society, law, markets and institutions at a global level. The overwhelming innovation encouraged by national and European public policies requires versatile professional figures, capable of applying the traditional categories of law to unprecedented technological phenomena, or even of building new ones better able to regulate the present. To do this, it is required an understanding of the basic architecture of networks, as well as the languages of mathematics and the logic of algorithms, in order to be able to read them in the forms of law. Specifically, the Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Law Laboratory serves as a direct complement to the immediately preceding laboratory, focusing on the legally relevant aspects concerning the implementation of AI. In particular, the course is aimed at: re-reading the general theory of artificial intelligence from a legal perspective, in the wake of the subject that still encompasses the teaching of legal informatics, i.e. philosophy of law; therefore to demonstrate the applicability of artificial intelligence algorithms to the various traditional functions of law; and finally to provide students with an overview of the main experiences of AI regulation at national, European and global level.
Prerequisites
Intelligenza artificiale.
Intended learning outcomes
Knowledge and comprehension: to achieve knowledge of some cuttingedge
topics in the relevant field of study with the appropriate teaching
support, understanding the difference between the logic of human
intelligence and that of artificial intelligence in relation to the formation of a decision and the social and legal impact of AI applications,
understanding the application of different types of algorithms for legally
significant purposes and knowledge of the main regulatory instruments
existing and proposed for the regulation of AI.
Applied knowledge and comprehension: devising and supporting
arguments relating on the one hand to the applications of AI in the legal
sector and on the other to the major challenges of AI regulation.
Making autonomous judgements: collecting and interpreting relevant
information and data.
Communication skills: communicating information, ideas, problems and
solutions with the specific technical vocabulary of artificial intelligence.
Ability to learn: having developed the skills necessary to undertake
subsequent studies with a high degree of autonomy.
Course Contents
I. Theory of artificial intelligence and law
II. The different types of artificial intelligence and machine learning, fair
division algorithms and the law
III. Law and regulation of artificial intelligence
Teaching materials consist of the content of the lectures given by the
lecturer, the reference text, and any materials shared on Luiss Learn.
Reference text:
Stefano Russo-Roberto Scavizzi, (ed.), Collection of European Union Acts
and Documents on Artificial Intelligence. Study material for a course on
AI, machine learning and law, OTW, Rome, 2022.
Reference Books
Teaching materials consist of the content of the lectures given by the
lecturer, the reference text, and any materials shared on Luiss Learn.
Reference text:
Stefano Russo-Roberto Scavizzi, (ed.), Collection of European Union Acts
and Documents on Artificial Intelligence. Study material for a course on
AI, machine learning and law, SOTERLOGOS, Rome, 2025.
Teaching Methods
Acquisition: lectures, podcasts and online quizzes
Practice: guest speakers, case study and simulation
Investigation: analyzing ideas and information in a range of materials and
resources, using legal databases to collect and analyze data and
comparing texts
Collaboration: small group project, discussing others’ output and building
joint output
Discussion: seminars, group based class discussion, online forums and
synchronous and asynchronous discussion
Production: essays, reports, presentations and blogs
Assessment Method
The final grade, expressed out of 30, will derive from the evaluation of
the following items for the respective percentage share:
20% attendance
10% active participation during classes
50% intermediate tests
20% final exam (written and oral)
N.B. The grade obtained at the outcome of the exam of this Laboratory
will participate for the share of 1/7 in the final grade which will be
attributed to the outcome of the exam of the Macchine intelligenti e
diritto (MID1) course and which regularly falls within the curricular
average grade of each student.
Week 1
I. Theory of artificial intelligence and law
1. Human intelligence and artificial intelligence
2. Formation of the decision as an act of will or on a statistical/algorithmic
basis
Week 2
I. Theory of artificial intelligence and law
3. Social and political impact of the spread of AI
Week 3
I. Theory of artificial intelligence and law
4. The legal data and its processing
Week 4
I. Theory of artificial intelligence and law
5. Structure and analysis of legal datasets
Week 5
II. The different types of artificial intelligence and machine learning, fair
division algorithms and the law
1. Statistical, probabilistic and deterministic algorithms
Week 6
II. The different types of artificial intelligence and machine learning, fair
division algorithms and the law
2. Fair division algorithms
Week 7
II. The different types of artificial intelligence and machine learning, fair
division algorithms and the law
3. Predictive algorithms
Week 8
II. The different types of artificial intelligence and machine learning, fair
division algorithms and the law
4. Neural networks
5. Deep learning
Week 9
III. Law and regulation of artificial intelligence
1. Theory and technique of AI regulation
Week 10
III. Diritto e regolazione dell’intelligenza artificiale
2. L’EU AI Strategy nel contesto globale
3. AI Act
4. La proposta di Direttiva sulla responsabilità dell’AI
Week 11
III. Law and regulation of artificial intelligence
5. Italian policy and legislation and case law
Week 12
III. Diritto e regolazione dell’intelligenza artificiale
6. Le principali posizioni internazionali delle Nazioni Unite e dell’OCSE