Taming the Smart Cyber Beast: A Network of Courts and Other Authorities

ABSTRACT Governments turned digital long ago. This is essential in terms of efficiency, which is in general a constitutional mandate incumbent on public bodies. Many tasks can be executed in a quicker and more effective manner, while leaving to human beings the responsibility of dealing with complex cases, where public interests need to be duly balanced. Yet risks also exist, and they need to be outweighed with benefits when using digital and AI instruments in public action. Controls of this usage are paramount. A theory of control of digital administration using AI instruments, i.e. the intelligent or smart Cyber Beast, needs to be comprehensive and up to date. This article attempts to delve into the main institutions and principles that frame said control.

KEYWORDS Artificial intelligence – Digital – Agencies – Courts – Judges – Algorithms – Administration – Discretion

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction. – 2. The Cyber-leviathan as a complex creature. – 2.1. Challenges and the need of control. – 2.2. Discretion in the smart administration. – 2.3. Complexity, taxonomies and a theory of control. – 3. An increasingly complex supervisory and control system. – 3.1. Agencies in modern administrative law. – 3.2. A plethora of actors to supervise the smart Cyber beast: EU and national level. – 4. The judiciary in a smart world: principles, challenges in judicial review and organisation. – 4.1. The rule of law, AI and the judiciary. – 4.2. Judicial review of administrative action in a new context: control of the smart administration. – 5. A glance at the future