Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec 23:8:789327.
doi: 10.3389/frobt.2021.789327. eCollection 2021.

Robot as Legal Person: Electronic Personhood in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

Sergio M C Avila Negri  1
Affiliations

Robot as Legal Person: Electronic Personhood in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

Sergio M C Avila Negri. Front Robot AI. .

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate the proposal to create a legal (electronic) personhood for robots with artificial intelligence based on the European Parliament resolution with recommendations on Civil Law and Robotics. To this end, we highlight the various risks and problems present in this type of initiative, especially in view of the current trend of expanding legal subjectivity in various jurisdictions. In addition to an anthropomorphic rhetoric, we can observe the prevalence of a pragmatic line that seeks to be guided, mainly, by the model of corporations, without taking into account, however, problems present in the process of embodiment of companies and the particular function of the term legal person in the grammar of Law.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; electronic personhood; legal person; legal personhood; robotics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Alcaro F. (1976). Riflessioni critice intorno alla soggettività giuridicha: significato di una evoluzione. Milan: Giuffrè.
    1. Balkin Jack. (2015). The Path of Robotics Law, 06. Berkeley: California Law Review Circuit, 45–60., v.
    1. Bertolini A. (2013). Robots as Products: The Case for a Realistic Analysis of Robotic Applications and Liability Rules. L. Innovation Techn. 2, 214–247. 10.5235/17579961.5.2.214 - DOI
    1. Bryson J. J., Diamantis M. E., Grant T. D. (2017). Of, for, and by the People: The Legal Lacuna of Synthetic Persons. Artif. Intell. L. 25 (3), 273–291. 10.1007/s10506-017-9214-9 - DOI
    1. Bryson J. J. (2018). Patiency Is Not a Virtue: the Design of Intelligent Systems and Systems of Ethics. Ethics Inf. Technol. 20, 15–26. 10.1007/s10676-018-9448-6 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources