Teaching Artificial Intelligence and Law in Spain (position paper)

Abstract

Technology is changing the nature of contemporary law and the way in which law relates to other forms of governance. This is the starting point of the courses on AI, Law and the Semantic web that I have been teaching consistently at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) since 2001. The Open University of Catalonia (UOC) started in Barcelona (1995) as a mixed foundation between the Catalan Government and a business consortium. Therefore, its rules and internal government are not the same of the other 7 Catalan public universities (UB, UAB, UG, UPF, UPC, ULL,URV) as it follow private standards. Compared to the other Universities, the UOC has a small permanent staff to run the different studies, but a large number of consultants (professors) belonging to the other Catalan universities to monitor virtual courses and write teaching materials. The UOC is entirely a virtualuniversity (http://www.uoc.edu) in which all the learning, teaching and complementary activities are offered through computer-based communication. Courses are offered mainly in Catalan and Spanish (reaching Latin American countries and the USA) in the so-called Catalan Campus and Ibero-American Campus. The AI and Law program started in 2001 with an introductory course on the subject-matter for the Law Degree and a more specialized course on Globalization, Legal Pluralism and the Semantic Web for the UOC PhD Program on Information Society (directed by Manuel Castells). To my knowledge, this is the first AI and Law program in Spain.