SPECIAL SESSION #19
Ethics & Law Of Technologies For Defense And Security
ORGANIZED BY
Ilaria Amelia Caggiano
Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa
Pietro Ferraro
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
Stefano De Luca
Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa
Umberto Montuoro
Aeronautica Militare
Christian Esposito
Università degli Studi di Salerno
Luigi Izzo
Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa
ABSTRACT
Digital technologies (from IoT to robotics, and AI technologies) contribute to the core dynamics of international conflicts: logistics and transportation systems, target recognition, combat simulation, robot soldiers, training and threat monitoring, collateral damage reduction in kinetic and non-kinetic actions, optimization of the C4ISTAR chain, prediction of networks, and support to operational efficiency.
The potential of these deployments is coupled with serious ethical challenges, such as the escalation of conflicts, the promotion of mass surveillance measures, the spreading of breaches of individual rights, as well as the loss of human-centricity in war and war decisions. Research, scientific advances and technological studies can be applied for both beneficial and harmful purposes (i.e. dual-use). Furthermore, issues about technological progress implemented in the civil sphere can evolve in dual-use exploitation raising further prospective risks.
All these risks need to be dealt with and different lines of action can be followed: e.g. assure that the design, development, and use of technologies and AI are informed by ethical considerations and guidance, and/or improve international legal instruments in the light also of developments in the role of international organizations (UN, NATO).
These ethical and legal issues integrate the classic themes of the ethics of war and defense (in the terms justice/injustice, or lawfulness/unlawfulness of certain uses or conditions for the use of military force, which are often the subject of international conventions) and can include evaluation and measurement of the issues in the development of technologies for defense.
The aim of the session, therefore, is to discuss the main legal, ethical and political issues related to current scientific, engineering and operational advances in the field of defense and security technologies, in the perspective of creating a forum for discussion on the operational lines useful for a reliable, human-centered and sustainable technological development.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
Prof. Ilaria Amelia Caggiano, Ph. D, graduated in Law at Federico II University of Naples in 2003 and Fulbright Visiting Scholar in 2011, is Full Professor of Private Law at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples (IT), where she teaches Private Law and New Technologies Law and holds the EUGREENEXT Jean Monnet Chair on Sustainability. Since 2021 she is Director of the Master in DPO and Privacy Law. She is Deputy Director of the ReCEPL Research Centre of European Private Law, specialized in technology, innovation and sustainability, and of the European Journal of Privacy Law and Technologies international legal review. She is author of three monographs and several publications in monetary trust law, protection of investors, Data protection, protection of vulnerabilities, autonomous vehicles and biotechnologies. She is now pursuing her interests in regulation and governance of data economy, electronic health data and data space, fundamental rights and sustainability impact assessment of Artificial Intelligence (FRIA and SIA) and technologies.
Pietro Ferraro is Research Director at Institute of Applied Science and Intelligent Systems, National Council of Research (CNR-ISASI), Pozzuoli, Italy. He is now pursuing his interests in 3D imaging for applications in non destructive testing in aerospace, biomedical field, fiber sensors, nanofluidics, and optofluidics. He has published about 300 papers in peer-review journals and has been an invited speaker in several international conferences. He is a co-editor of two books: Micro-/ Nanoengineering and Characterization of Ferroelectric Crystals for Photonic Applications (New York, NY, USA: Springer-Verlag, 2008) and Coherent Light Microscopy(New York, NY, USA: Springer-Verlag, 2011). Dr. Ferraro is a Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) and the Optical Society of America (OSA). He is the Topical Editor of Biomedical Optics Express, member of the Editorial Board of the Optics and Lasers in Engineering Journal, member of the Editorial Board of the Measurement & Science Technology Journal. He received the SPIE Dannis Gabor Awared in 2020. He is member of the Scientific Board of Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) for the next four years.
Prof. Stefano De Luca, who graduated cum laude in Philosophy at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza' in 1988 with a thesis on Norberto Bobbio's thought, is currently Full Professor of History of Political Thought at the University of Naples 'Suor Orsola Benincasa'. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Giunta Storica Nazionale. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Strasbourg and is Scientific Advisor for the Italian-French University. He teaches in the PhD in Political Studies at Sapienza University of Rome and in the National PhD in Heritage Science. He is on the Editorial Board of the band A journals 'Storia del pensiero politico' and 'Rivista di Politica'. His main research interests are Liberalism (history and theory), Democracy (history and theory), Italian and French political thought of the 19th century, Digital Revolution and Politics. He is the author of 222 scientific publications. In recent years his research interests have focused on the relationship between the digital revolution and politics, in particular on the impact of Big Data/Artificial Intelligence on democratic processes and war. Since 2023 he has been Principal Investigator of the PRIN (Research Project of National Interest) For a Critical History of Artificial Intelligence.
Umberto Montuoro is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Italian Air Force. Legal Advisor to the Italian National Contingent Commander AIR, in Unified Protector (Libya 2011). State Fleet Legal Adviser, 31st Wing in Ciampino. Legal Advisor of the Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa, he has been the director of the course for Legal Advisor in the Armed Forces for 10 academic years, where he was director of international workshops on peacekeeping. NATO expert, for peace operations, within the Defence Education Enhancement Program. He is serving in the Military Prosecution Service at the Court of Cassation and is former National Secretary of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War; Director of the ‘Federico Cesi’ Law Library and Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Military Justice. Author of approximately ninety publications of a politico-legal nature. Co-director of the International Humanitarian Law and Armed Conflict Studies Series. Lecturer in Common Foreign and Security Policy at the Alcide De Gasperi Institute for European Studies, he collaborates with numerous universities. He is a member of the Italian Centro Studi Esercito and a member of the scientific committees of a number of journals, the Italian Society for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and the International Law Association, Committee on Global Cultural Heritage Governance.
Prof. Christian Esposito is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Salerno, since December 2022. He was a Tenured Assistant Professor at the University of Salerno, an Assistant Professor at the University of Napoli “Federico II”, and a two-year Research Fellow and short-term Researcher at the Institute of High Performance Computing and Networking (ICAR) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) from 2011 to 2015. He graduated in Computer Engineering in 2006 and got his PhD in 2009, both at the University of Naples “Federico II”, in Italy.
He has published about 150 papers in international journals and conferences and has been a PC member or involved in the organization of about 60 international conferences/workshops. He regularly serves as a reviewer in journals and conferences in the field of distributed and dependable systems and is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering and the International Journal of High-Performance Computing and Networking, both by Inderscience. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Access, and has served as guest editor for various special issues at international journals. His interests include positioning systems, reliable and secure communications, game theory and multi-objective optimization. He is involved in investigating ethical and legal issues in data management within the context of healthcare digital services.
Luigi Izzo, "PhD(c) in Technologies and Humanities", legal profile, University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa.