Valentin Jeutner

Project summary

Robots, rules and legal reasoning: Can robots be legally reasonable persons?

Tasks that were once performed by humans are increasingly being delegated to robots. Already today, robots can carry out basic household tasks, optimise medical treatment, and manage financial transactions and energy grids. The behaviour of robots is controlled by software code: a set of instructions expressed in numerical computer language. With this software code in mind, my research project seeks to answer three questions. The first is what robots should be permitted to do. Should they be allowed to enter into contracts or decide whether a patient should receive medical treatment?

 

The second question is how rules governing robots should be designed and communicated to them. Should robots be given detailed instructions, or should they instead be provided with general principles to apply in specific situations? The final question is who should oversee the creation of the software code that governs robots. Should this responsibility lie with software experts or with democratically elected members of parliament?

 

In addressing these questions, I intend to examine what the law says, and could say, about robots in comparison with reasonable human beings. In particular, I will investigate the benefits and feasibility of programming robots to behave in the same way as their human counterparts. My ultimate aim is to identify a clear set of legal principles that should govern the use of robots.