Course Information
This core course aims to address the why of regulating digital technologies. We reflect on the broad societal implications of digital technologies, and how they mediate what we consider to be worth striving for, or worth protecting - and, consequently, what requires legal regulation.
As technologies may disrupt established practices and bring forth unintended consequences that are not, or even cannot, always be adequately addressed by existing regulation, students will be trained in identifying, analyzing and providing advice on ethical dilemmas that arise with the embedding of digital technologies in almost all of our interactions.
Given the current developments (both in technology and regulation), the course will have a special focus on Artificial Intelligence.We reflect on the relation between ethics and the development of relevant legal frameworks, such as data protection law and the AI Act.
Course topics:
What is ethics, and what is its status or authority (meta-ethics)?
Introduction to some of the main ethical frameworks and concepts
Introduction to moral reasoning
How do law, technology and ethics relate in the regulatory landscape?
How does ethics play a role in legal regulation?
How can (moral) norms be embedded in technology?
Anticipating impacts (Collingridge’s dilemma)
Value sensitive design
Technologies as “social experiments”?
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Which are characteristic ethical issues of AI?
Course objectives
The course aims to develop knowledge and understanding of ethical concepts and thinking relevant for legal professionals in the domain of digital technologies. While this course does not aim to be a general introduction to ethics and ethical theories, it will provide pointers to -mostly western European- normative ethical frameworks and concepts, which can be seen to underly European legal frameworks relevant for digital technologies. The course also addresses specific normative aspects of digital architectures and design.
Achievement levels
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of key ethical concepts relevant to digital technologies and the European legal frameworks for digital technologies.
- Identify and describe relationships between normative aspects of digital architectures and ethical considerations - in particular for implications of AI.
- Identify and analyze specific normative challenges around digital technologies - in particular AI - and provide basic arguments how ethical, technical and legal interventions could contribute to resolving them.
- Read, ask basic questions about and reflect on relevant non-legal readings and materials
- Discuss ethical implications of digital technologies with proficient awareness and reflection on different disciplinary, cultural and personal positionalities.
Mode of instruction
The course will have 6 sessions: 4 plenary "interactive lecture" sessions, and 2 sessions with class discussions and activities in smaller groups.
In preparation as well as in-class, students are expected to actively engage with a curated collection of readings and other materials from different relevant disciplines.
The learning method relies on active and critical reading and engagement with non-legal perspectives on the impacts of digital technologies.
Specific attention will be paid to balancing cultural diversity and disciplinary differences in assessing and resolving relevant normative tensions.
Students are explicitly asked to bring in, and reflect on, their own positionality in terms of knowledge and (life) experience.
The group will be split in smaller subgroups in one or more sessions, to facilitate optimal interaction and exchange of ideas (students learning from and about each other).
Course Requirement
Master Degree
Timetable
The timetable of this course will be available for students in MyTimetable
Brightspace
More information on this course is offered in Brightspace
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory as specified in Article 5.1 of the Course and Examination Regulations of the Master of Laws Advanced Studies Programmes
Examination Method
In term assignment: reflective journal (pass/fail; pass required for admission to exam)
Exam (short essay questions about indicated exam materials) (100%)
Required reading list
See Brightspace
As the field is rapidly and continuously evolving, the set of course materials will be updated every year and communicated on Brightspace at the start of the course.
Course materials will include podcasts, documentaries and/or web lectures. It will be indicated on Brightspace which materials will be made available at the exam.
This year we will work with the book (and lecture recordings):
Sandel Michael J. 2009. Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Justice with Michael Sandel – recorded lecture series at Harvard: https://scholar.harvard.edu/sandel/justice
Some recommended readings, e.g. as preparation for the course:
Kate Crawford, Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, 2021. Yale University Press
Verbeek, P.-P., Moralizing technology: Understanding and designing the morality of things. 2011, Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press. Ix, 183 p.
Julia Driver: Ethics, The Fundamentals (2006), Wiley-Blackwell, 192 p.
Additionally, some recommended fiction to inspire thinking about ethical questions around digital technologies (your own suggestions are warmly invited!):Dave Eggers, The Circle (2013) and The Every (2021)
Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun (2021)
Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me (2019)
Series: Black Mirror (Netflix – Seasons 1-5, Season 6 expected in June 2023)
Movie: Stanley Kubrick, 2001 A Space Odyssee
Movie: Minority Report (2002)
Contact information
Programme Coordinator
Ms Patricia Garcia Fernandez
Telephone number: 0031- 71 527 4228
E-mail: lawanddigitaltechnologies@law.leidenuniv.nl
Course Coordinator
Dr Francien Dechesne
f.dechesne@law.leidenuniv.nl
“Disclaimer:
Should there be any future extenuating circumstances which may impinge our teaching and assessment, these could necessitate modification of the course descriptions after 1 September. This will only happen in the event of strict necessity and the interests of the students will be taken into account. Should there be a need for any change during the course, this will be informed to all students on a timely basis. Modifications after 1 September 2024 may only be done with the approval and consent of the Faculty Board and Programme Director.