General provisions

Determined on October 7, 2021 by Faculty of Law's Teaching Committee, Uppsala University, by virtue of Chapter 6 Section 14 and 15 (1993:100) of the Higher Education Ordinance. The course plan enters into force on January 1, 2022. Revised 7 mars 2024, the course plan enters into force on July 1, 2024.

The course is 15 university points (15 ECTS credits) and an optional course at advanced level in the studies for the degree of Master of Laws, according to the degree requirements adopted 16 April 2007 by the Board of the Faculty of Law of Uppsala University. The course is held in English.

Entry requirements

In general, Swedish students must have attained five passes out of the six courses given at undergraduate level of the LL.M. programme. All the obligatory phases of the course in which the student has not attained a pass must have been fulfilled.

Foreign students shall have studied law for at least two years.

If special reasons exist the board of exemption may grant exemption from the acceptance requirements.

Learning outcomes

After the course, students should be able to:

• Identify and investigate advanced legal issues that emerge at the interface of Law and AI.
• Have a basic understanding of how different AI models function and how this can be relevant from a legal perspective.
• Independently find and analyze relevant legal source material relating to Law & AI. The main focus is on theoretical frameworks and EU law, but in some parts of the course other international and national legal sources will also be relevant.
• Understand the difference between regulation of AI by law and by ethical guidelines.
• Apply relevant law, notably EU law, in the area Law & AI.
• Analyze the regulation of AI applying relevant theoretical frameworks and literature.
• Evaluate the use of AI as a regulatory tool applying relevant theoretical frameworks and literature.
• Present solutions, orally and in writing, to complex legal issues related to Law & AI.
• Evaluate policy and new legislative developments related to AI.

Criteria for grades

For the grade "approved" (B) the student shall, firstly, show an ability to present, both written and orally, issues related to Law & AI, and, secondly, achieve all the other learning outcomes, showing an ability to present and summarize material in a descriptive and reflective way.

For the higher grade "approved with merit" (Ba) the student shall, in addition to fulfilling the requirements for grade B, show an ability to structure material and to reason independently, critically and analytically.

For the highest grade "approved with distinction" (AB) the student shall, in addition to fulfilling the requirements for grade Ba, show an ability to structure material well, to analyze well, to evaluate critically and to argue convincingly, with a high degree of independence.

Content

Within the last decade the technological advances and societal uptake of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been enormous. Currently AI is getting a foothold in almost any aspect of life. AI software (personalized recommender systems, automated risk assessment systems, image analytics, etc.) has become ubiquitous and is increasingly embedded within smart objects such as voice assistants, smart cameras, drones and self-driving cars. AI is both used to classify ("social sorting") as well as to create (such as "deepfakes"). AI is not just the object of regulation but is also increasingly used as a tool for regulation and enforcement. This course gives an introduction to some salient legal debates surrounding the uptake of AI within society.

Four important themes in the course are:

1. The basics of AI. What is AI? How can society be regulated and organized by means of information technology (IT) and AI? How do AI applications affect a variety of legal domains (constitutional law, data protection, intellectual property, torts law, etc.)?
2. Data: the legal status of AI input and output. We discuss the legal status of what goes in and what comes out of AI models: input and output data.
3. New and existing EU instruments, and policies regulating AI.
4. AI in practice. We discuss several practical examples of how AI is used and the legal issues that it raises.

The course aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Law & AI as regards both practical and theoretical legal problems. The main focus of the course is on EU law but when relevant also other international and national legal instruments are discussed.

Instruction

The teaching consists of seminars and student presentations.

The seminars provide context and interpretation of the reading material and the main issues that the course deals with.

In the Course Information  it specifies for which seminars attendance is  obligatory. If special reasons exist, the course director may exempt a student from attending particular seminars, and may require appropriate replacement tasks to be performed.

Students prepare for the seminars both individually and in a "basgrupp" (base group) of 4-5 students. The required preparation for the seminars consists of the literature for the course as a whole, and whatever special reading instructions are given for each seminar. During some of the seminars students will be required to present a short written assignment or give a short commentary on the assignment of another student.

Assessment

The grades given are Fail (U), and the passing grades Pass (B), Pass with credit (Ba) and Pass with distinction (AB).

The final grade is based on a final paper and a study portfolio

The paper should be on a topic relevant for the course.

The study portfolio consists of:

• Class attendance;
• Submission of obligatory written assignments;
• Obligatory oral presentations;
• Self-reflection on the learning process

A student whose final written paper and/or portfolio has been given a Fail (U) will be given one opportunity to submit a retake at a time determined by the examiner shortly after the end of the course. Alternatively, the retake written paper and/or portfolio may be submitted the next time the course is given, at the submission time for final written assignment.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding recommendations of special pedagogical support from the disability coordinator of the university.

Deception on the part of a student in the examination or in graded course work is prohibited. It is, for example, cheating to submit an essay containing another person's unattributed work. Where deception in this, or another way, is suspected, this will be reported to the University Discipline Board which can decide on an official warning or a period of up to six months suspension of studies.

Other regulations

It is delegated to the course director to issue the study plan and the literature list. These shall be annually submitted to the Teaching Committee as part of the course report.