The Phenomenon of the Algorithm and Its Impact on the EU Legal System: an Attempt at a Multidisciplinary Approach

Abstract

We are experiencing a digital revolution that is changing the very nature of law. Digital code becomes a form of regulation through which private actors link their values to technological artifacts that prove capable of conditioning their operations both on a material and moral level. But technological artifacts appear to be non-neutral means, reflecting choices of different nature, among which those of a political nature stand out. The more the regulatory provisions are implemented through the use of technologies, the more the codes acquire the status of a regulatory technique, which can be used both to define and incorporate regulatory and contractual provisions into codes both to implement them. The impact of the algorithm is of crystal clear relevance not only in regulation but also in the other side of the coin: surveillance. Each new option brought by the development of technology brings new possibilitiesand changes the way humans relate to each other. All these beautiful technological devices that few of us are willing to abandon produce a positive enhancement of the human and new kind of addiction, but also a new slavery”. The algorithmic revolution spills over to society andpublic systems designed to ensure its well-being. So, fiscal consequences of the algorithmic revolution risk, if not governed, to call into question the very foundation of the social pact, to which the fiscal duty is connected as a manifestation of solidarity within an organized community, not only within the borders of the individual State but also in a wider sphere. Legal scholars can face the newest challenges of the present without fear and without nostalgia.But to this purpose he must remove all obstacles to the necessary dialogue between jurists of different backgrounds, between jurists and non-jurists, between jurists and society.