Prospectus

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Ethics & Digital Technologies

Course
2022-2023

Course description

This is a core course.

Ethics is a fundamental tool for understanding the broad societal impacts and implications of digital technologies.

Over the recent years, the importance of including ethical considerations in the design, development and deployment of digital technologies has been vastly recognized. Where the law is ambiguous or fails to give guidance or limitations for balancing different stakeholders interests, ethical deliberation offers a highly needed extra dimension to legal analysis for both design and regulation of technological applications.

This course aims to develop knowledge and understanding of ethical issues relevant for legal professionals in the domain of digital technologies. How do law, technology and ethics relate in the regulatory landscape? Do tech-companies have a moral obligation to be transparent about their use of data? Does society have a moral obligation to reap the (apparent) benefits from profiling techniques, even if it may structurally disadvantage certain individuals or groups? What constitutes manipulation in the digital environment and (why) is it bad? What is the moral status of autonomous digital processes, robots and/or AI? Can algorithmic systems help increase fairness in decisions? What do trust and trustworthiness mean in the realm of digital technologies? What is moral responsibility and how to attribute or distribute it across the complex network of parties involved in the application of digital technologies?

As technologies may disrupt established practices and bring forth unintended consequences that cannot always be adequately addressed by traditional regulation, students will be trained in identifying, analyzing and providing advice on mitigating such ethical dilemmas.

Underpinned by theories in the field of ethics and philosophy of technology, students will get acquainted with strategies of design, development, deployment and evaluation of digital technologies to fulfill ethical priciples and societal values. The aim of this course is two-sided: (1) to familiarize the students with the relevance of ethical theory, analysis and argumentation, and (2) to constructively discuss ethical dilemmas specific to the context of digital technologies.

The teaching method relies on active learning. Students are expected to actively engage with a curated collection of readings, and engage in discussions involving digital technologies. Students are explicitly asked to bring in their own knowledge and expertise in order to develop a multifaceted ethical assessment. Specific attention will be paid to balancing different perspectives, cultural diversity, and disciplinary differences in relevant practices and thinking about solutions. The group may be split in smaller subgroups for one or more debate sessions, to facilitate optimal interaction and exchange of ideas.

As the field is rapidly and continuously evolving, a definitive course reader will be compiled on Brightspace with a collection of research articles and discussions around moral impacts of digital technologies.

Some recommended readings preparing for the course:
Julia Driver: Ethics, The Fundamentals (2006), Wiley-Blackwell, 192 p.
Verbeek, P.-P., Moralizing technology: Understanding and designing the morality of things. 2011, Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press. Ix, 183 p.
Kate Crawford, Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, 2021. Yale University Press

Or some recommended fiction (but make sure to bring your own suggestions as well!):

  • Dave Eggers, The Circle (2013) and The Every (2021)

  • Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me (2019)

  • Series: Black Mirror (Netflix)

  • Movie: Stanley Kubrick, 2001 A Space Odyssee

  • Movie: Minority Report (2002)

Course requirement

Master Degree

Timetable

The timetable of this course will be available for students in Brightspace
5 Lectures and 1 interactive seminar of 2 hours (split class)

Brightspace

More information on this course is offered in Brightspace

Attendance

Attendance of 80% of the scheduled course lectures is mandatory

Assessment method

In term-participation (20%)
Take home exam (80%)

Contact information

Programme Coordinator
Ms Patricia Garcia Fernandez
Telephone number: 0031- 71 527 4228
E-mail: lawanddigitaltechnologies@law.leidenuniv.nl

Disclaimer: Currently these pages are being updated to reflect the courses for 2022 - 2023. Until these pages are fixed as per 1 September 2022 no rights can be claimed from the information which is currently contained within.
Should there be any future changes of the Covid 19 virus 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 2022 may only be done with the approval and consent of the Faculty Board and Programme Director.