Elena Falletti

The common law, originating in England and later adopted in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, India, Hong Kong, and Singapore, remains unified by the doctrine of stare decisis, the binding force of precedent. Accurate citation of case law is, therefore, an essential skill for judges and lawyers, particularly in case analysis and legal drafting. Despite efforts to ensure reliable training data, such systems may generate inaccuracies—misleadingly referred to as "hallucinations." Unlike human error, these are statistical variances rather than cognitive phenomena. In common law systems, however, reliance on false precedents undermines the authority of binding precedent, since it is no longer possible to determine whether a precedent is genuine and how it connects to the actual judicial decision that gave rise to the principle of stare decisis. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential consequences of using Large Language Model (LLM) in legal practice, and to consider possible safeguards, with particular regard to the preservation of the binding authority of leading cases within common law jurisdictions.

The article discusses the use of algorithms, both predictive and generative artificial intelligence systems, in the context of fighting family abuse and child maltreatment. The research approach is based on comparative case law analysis, examining the real-world impact of these algorithms on individuals, potential biases in predictive software, and the perceived authority of GenAI in judicial decisions.

Credit scoring software is now entrenched in the banking market to prevent defaults and non-performing loans. However, these software present critical issues concerning black box and algorithm functioning, as well as biases in the data that feed the machine learning. Even though the Artificial Intelligence Act Proposal has not yet entered into force, case law has already been formed on them, starting with the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-634/21), which has recognized that debtors requesting bank loans have access to the right to an explanation under Article 22 GDPR regarding the decision-making process of such programs.

As is well known, as colonialism expanded, the role of the botanical garden was shaped by the new colonial powers, first the Dutch one, later the British one. The point was to study and understand how to produce marketable goods such as exotic spices and plants as efficiently as possible. The purpose of this abstract is to understand how, through these laboratories of knowledge, it was possible to find the basis for international trade rules in exotic goods. On the other hand, it could be investigated how this approach still influences legal debate today, particularly concerning cultural heritage and biodiversity protection.

This abstract aims to analyze the impact of the Reformation on marriage. The theological vision of Luther’s Reformation had a double effect on marriage: 1. Marriage was not a sacrament, so it recovered its original character of conventional agreement about the communion of life. 2. It was accepted that marriages could be dissolved through divorce. However, the combination of the customs changed because of the European wars on religion, which disseminated syphilis, and the prospective spouses could not live together before the ceremony. These attitudes were shared by Protestants and Catholics and contributed to stiffening the sexual morality of future centuries. Since then, spouses must be of different sex, bound in a monogamous relationship for life, and prenuptial sex was prohibited. How did this mindset cross time until now? Does Reformation still influence heterosexual and same-sex marriage nowadays?

VioGén (Sistema de Seguimiento Integral en los casos de Violencia de Género) is a risk assessment software regulated by "Ley Orgánica 1/2004 de Medidas de Protección Integral contra la Violencia de Género", and it applies to regulation in all reported gender-based violence situations, especially regarding intimate partners violence or violence against minors. It has been used in Spain since 2007, and it is designed to estimate the risk of occurrence of further violence after a previous complaint (police recidivism), taking into account risk and protective indicators which it can observe, in spite of its final users are not behavioral assessment experts. Since it is a predictive software, VioGén could be considered a "high-risk AI systems" under the Annex III of the new “Proposal for AI Regulation” published by the European Commission on 21st April 2021. Using risk assessment software like VioGén shows both positive and negative issues. On the one hand, VioGén allows developing strategies to reduce recidivism throught the prediction of IPV risk. This stands out in a peculiar way because of the first-hand contact with victims and aggressors, in particular in family environments, where the protection of vulnerable subjects against life, personal integrity, and safety threats is essential for assuring peaceful relationships. On the other hand, risk assessment softwares shows relevant critical issues regarding the presumption of innocence of individuals, the presence of bias that the software can absorb from both data collected or machine learning proceedings. The aim of this proposal is to analyze the relevant profiles using a risk assessment software like VioGén involved in human rights protection under both the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention of Human Rights, focusing the balance on protection of dignity, right to life, to physical and mental integrity, protection of private and family life, non-discrimination and fair trial, for vulnerable subjects and on the other hand the protection of due process, presumption of innocence and non-discrimination for prospective defendants.

The Covid-19 global outbreak showed that big data gathering is an issue of international and national public health. According to comparative experience carried out especially in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea contagion containment action should take place through the coordinated use of tests and tracking of infected contacts. From the end of March 2020, the Italian authorities started to prepare preparations for non-pharmaceutical interventions in order to be able to reactivate economic life and prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the country. From this perspective, the massive collection of personal data related to Covid-19 could present a possible opportunity for the elaboration of predictive models, especially after an open discussion involving experts and public opinion about the effectiveness of the enforcement of AI models. The main challenge here was to persuade people to download and use the app, showing trust in public policies and strategies planned by the Italian Government against the Covid-19 outbreak. In order to collect massive personal data according to the relevant constitutional and legal provisions, the Italian Government promoted a Law-decree No. 28/2020 regarding urgent measures for the introduction of a national Covid-19 alert system. It was called “Immuni”. This regulation disciplines the collection and management of big data through a black box. Regarding privacy protection, this law establishes some guarantees for users, and for this purpose any person, on a voluntary basis, can download a special software application, respecting the transparency principle and providing the proper information regarding the legal framework of this data collection. According to the Italian government, privacy protection, individual consent, and local data management were considered preferable to mandatory traceability and centralised management of the same data. However, first empirical analysis underlined that Italian people did not seem confident in the Immuni app since only 10 million people (over 60 million people of Italian population) downloaded it. Some questions about its public dissemination among citizens could emerge.

This article investigates some questions inherent to scientific paediatric research that involve the international medical and ethical-juridical debate, particularly in the British and Italian legal systems. Clinical trials are modelled on adult patients, who have very different body and metabolic parameters from those of children. Therefore, ethical-juridical doubts arise regarding the balancing of opposing rights for the child: is it legitimate to try everything possible for a child's survival? Even if this means the child becomes a guinea pig in research? Otherwise, the fate is death. In this situation, how is it possible to identify the child's "best interest"?