The Right to Disconnect and the Right to Human Oversight of Algorithms as New Digital Subjective Rights

ABSTRACT This contribution begins with an analysis of the consequences of the process of destructuring and rarefaction affecting the traditional enterprise model under the pressure of digitalisation and the spread of intelligent technologies, together with the risks arising from the increasingly widespread adoption of algorithmic management. It then develops a series of reflections from both a de iure condito and a de iure condendo perspective, with the aim of arguing for the recognition of the right to disconnect and the right to human oversight of algorithms as new digital subjective rights. Owing to their specificity, these rights function as instruments for safeguarding personality rights and inviolable human rights. Their regulation should not be confined to the Civil Code or to contingent special legislation, but must be extended to the constitutional level, in particular through Article 2 of the Constitution.

KEYWORDS Right to Disconnect - Human Oversight of Algorithms - Agile Work - Always-On Connectivity - Automation Bias

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Frame of Reference, Systematic Framework and Underlying Issues. – 2. The Destructuring of the Enterprise as a Physical Space and Predetermined Spatio-Temporal Context: Organisational Grounds for Flexibility and Agile Work, Balancing Opportunities and Risks. – 3. The Right to Disconnect. The Inadequacy of Law No. 81 of 22 May 2017 and the Urgent Need for a Constitutionally Oriented Reading. – 4. The Right to Human Oversight of Algorithmic Processes and Decisions. A Systematic Inquiry De Iure Condito and De Iure Condendo in the Light of the Constitution. – 5. Conclusions.