LAW & ETHICS OF INNOVATION & SUSTAINABILITY

The course develops an integrated approach to law and ethics in the research field of innovation and sustainability. The course welcomes students with different backgrounds interested in understanding ethical concerns of innovation and sustainable development. Legal culture has increasingly experienced the disruptive transformation of the digital and sustainability transition. Among the many factors that, today, compel legal scholars to inquiry innovative technologies, ethical foundations of legal systems are called into question. This course will address such issues from an ethics and law perspective. The course builds on different conceptualizations of ethical reasoning from philosophy of law and ethics and applies them to topics of innovation and sustainability that raise relevant societal challenges. Topics include algorithms and digital identity; legal personhood for AI; digital ethics; data ethics; ethics of climate change; rights of future generations and intergenerational justice; corrective justice applied to sustainable practices; global justice. The course also offers an selection of case studies (including judicial cases) and applies different methodologies all based on the enquiry-based learning, including empirical methodologies, to solve complex ethical problems related to innovation and sustainability and develop law and ethics reasoning. In particular, the course pays much attention to applied methodologies of teaching that are aimed to transfer also practical skills deriving from students’ first-hand experiences. Teachers and guest speakers will provide an overview on the most relevant core issues that reflect the current topical issues in the law and ethics applied to digitalization and sustainability. Students are expected to complete an innovative individual or collaborative project as the output of their ethics reasoning on legal issues, applying the combined knowledge and skills acquired through the course.

No specific prerequisites

Knowledge and understanding: By the end of the course, students should be able to: develop a critical comprehension of the inner functioning of innovation ecosystems and their ethical implications; understand the ethical foundations of legal systems, their changes and challenges in the current time as well as their future prospects, finding themselves dealing with the digital and sustainability transition; reflect independent and creative thinking, occasionally reaching “out of the box” and “lateral” way of thinking. Applying knowledge and understanding: Upon completing the study program, students will be able to evaluate the impact of disruptive changes in the legal and moral system; effectively communicate and work, as an expert, in innovation and sustainability ethical issues. Making judgements: Upon completing the study program, students will be able to: present an informed scientific opinion in the public debate concerning legal principles for ethical decisions in the innovation and sustainability debate; apply reasoning in the main innovation economics subjects, thanks to the understanding of the legal aspects of ethics involving technological innovation and sustainability; gather and interpret information and data from different sources, in order to make judgements in an independent way; prepare original research supported by relevant bibliography and data analysis, and discuss and assess different perspectives and methods. Communications Skills: Upon completing the study program, students will be able to: develop the ability to express themselves through written assignments and oral presentations of readings and cases; foster the development of relational skills in international and multicultural settings; be aware of the debate on ethics of innovation and sustainability and actively participate in the discussion with experts. Learning skills: Upon completing the study program, students will be able to: draft hypotheticals with case-studies; solve problems in dynamics settings and develop critical positions. This ability will be acquired through class participation, open discussion, and problem-based written assignments.

The course is divided into three modules. Each modules is subdivided in 50% on line classes and 50% on campus classes. The first module is introductory (weeks 1-2), while the second and third modules will proceed in parallel developing two interconnected aspects (weeks 3-12). In order to foster the enquiry-based learning, the lectures will address case studies, relevant contemporary issues and ethical dilemmas. Module 1: On the fundamentals of law and ethics Module 2: Law and ethics as applied to digitalization and innovation technologies Module 3: Law and ethics as applied to sustainability concepts, regulations and policies. In particular, the course will address the following issues and topics: fundamentals of law and ethics law’s point of view on ethics and morality ethical issues for information and communication technologies the role of trust in digital technologies algorithm and digital identity legal personhood for AI digital ethics data ethics the concept of (economic, environmental and social) sustainability from a legal and ethical perspective rights of future generations and intergenerational justice sustainable development, environmental ethics and climate justice social and global justice

The analysis of current issues makes it impossible to refer to a specific textbook. The slides, referring to a given lesson, will be made available to students in advance. However, for a general and informative overview of the most relevant issues in the research field, students can refer to: K. Bosselmann (2016), The principle of sustainability: transforming law and governance. Taylor & Francis. F. Ekardt, (2019), Sustainability: Transformation, Governance, Ethics, Law. Springer. L. Coleman (2001), The Practice of Principle: In Defence of a Pragmatist Approach to Legal Theory. Oxford University Press. M. D. Dubber, F. Pasquale, S. Das (2020), The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI. Oxford University Press. L. Floridi (2019), The Logic of Information: A Theory of Philosophy as Conceptual Design. Oxford University Press. S. Zuboff (2019), The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Public Affairs.

Preparatory materials will be available before each class covering each of the specific topics addressed in the course. Hence the traditional presentation of issues, cases and topics can be concise and leave room to Q&A and discussions. The Course will host guests’ lecturers of practitioners and experts as well as lab sessions. Evaluation based on students’ short reaction papers will be mainly held in the first half of the course.

The assessment of students’ learning will be based on: Attendance and active participation to class discussions (25%). Evaluation period: throughout the course. Short Reaction Papers (25%). Evaluation period: first half of the course (TBA). Individual/Working groups Projects (depending on the number of attendees) (25%). Evaluation period: second half of the course. Presentation on Readings and/or Case Studies (25%). Evaluation period: last week of the course. The participation in lab sessions is strongly encouraged. More details regarding materials for and timings of evaluations will be provided at the beginning of the course. Students are asked to work in groups to tackle ethical issues concerning innovation and sustainability, prepare original research supported by relevant bibliography and data analysis, discuss in class different perspectives to address the issue. Students will be supported through workshops and lab sessions in drafting the final brief paper (a case study analysis or a problem-based project work).

Manifestation of interest

Yes