TY - JOUR
T1 - User Accounts: How technological concepts permeate public law through the AI Act
AU - Koivisto, Ida
AU - Koulu, Riikka
AU - Larsson, Stefan
PY - 2024/5/16
Y1 - 2024/5/16
N2 - This article argues that through the EU’s technology regulation, technological concepts permeate legal language. Such concepts may function as transplants, even irritants, causing tensions and uncertainties. As technology regulation is increasingly horizontal, i.e. obligating private and public actors alike, these newfound legal concepts remain disconnected from established public law vocabulary and the power constellations it represents and embeds. We approach this evolution of legal language from a public law perspective and concentrate on the concepts of ‘user’ and 'deployer' in the EU’s upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act. We discuss these emerging legal concepts in relation to the rich theorizing on the concepts in human-computer interaction research. Our analysis demonstrates a discrepancy between legal and technology-oriented conceptualizations of the ‘user-deployer’. We draw three conclusions. First, the digital revolution is taking place in conceptual-linguistic practices of law, and not only when translating law into code. Second, when external concepts are appropriated into law, they are uprooted from their established habitat, which may result in unpredictability in future legal interpretation. Third, in public law, adopting the ‘user-deployer' may have some additional challenges, as it introduces a new agent into the relationship between public authority and private entities. Simultaneously, citizens seem to be mainly excluded from the legal conceptualizing, which risks blurring traditional power constellations.
AB - This article argues that through the EU’s technology regulation, technological concepts permeate legal language. Such concepts may function as transplants, even irritants, causing tensions and uncertainties. As technology regulation is increasingly horizontal, i.e. obligating private and public actors alike, these newfound legal concepts remain disconnected from established public law vocabulary and the power constellations it represents and embeds. We approach this evolution of legal language from a public law perspective and concentrate on the concepts of ‘user’ and 'deployer' in the EU’s upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act. We discuss these emerging legal concepts in relation to the rich theorizing on the concepts in human-computer interaction research. Our analysis demonstrates a discrepancy between legal and technology-oriented conceptualizations of the ‘user-deployer’. We draw three conclusions. First, the digital revolution is taking place in conceptual-linguistic practices of law, and not only when translating law into code. Second, when external concepts are appropriated into law, they are uprooted from their established habitat, which may result in unpredictability in future legal interpretation. Third, in public law, adopting the ‘user-deployer' may have some additional challenges, as it introduces a new agent into the relationship between public authority and private entities. Simultaneously, citizens seem to be mainly excluded from the legal conceptualizing, which risks blurring traditional power constellations.
KW - the AI Act
KW - the user
KW - the user-deployer
KW - public law
KW - power
KW - HCI and law
KW - the legal language of automation
KW - the emerging legal language of automation
U2 - 10.1177/1023263X241248469
DO - 10.1177/1023263X241248469
M3 - Article
SN - 1023-263X
SP - 1
EP - 21
JO - Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law
JF - Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law
ER -