Κυριακή 26 Οκτωβρίου 2008

Privacy issues in e-justice


Ioannis Iglezakis,

Privacy issues in e-justice
Presentation in the Conference ICT4Justice (THESSALONIKI, GREECE - OCTOBER 24th, 2008).


Privacy in the information society is more than the right to be left alone. The concept of privacy in its traditional form includes the right of the individual to shield its most intimate activities, thoughts and beliefs from other people. However, as modern people are not living in a state of isolation, but of interaction, it is clear that nobody can live alone, isolated from others. Therefore, it becomes evident that modern privacy (should) encompasse not just the right to be let alone, but rather the right to control how information about the individual is collected, used and being processed.

Particularly, in view of the risks which are inherent in new technologies, privacy can be conceptualized as the individual’s right to protection of personal information concerning the use of ICT. Privacy issues are emerging in various cases, in which information and communication technologies are employed. ICTs are also introduced in the justice sector with a view to provide for more efficiency, accountability and enhanced cross-border cooperation. Although e-Justice will play a big role in the modernization of the system of justice in the near future, its development should also take into account the need to provide protection of privacy.

In particular, e-justice aims at allowing greater information sharing between government departments and between judicial and police authorities in different countries. This increase in the flow of personal information may, however, infringe privacy for the reason that it could contravene with the purpose limitation principle.

In more general, the more personal data are being processed by public authorities, the more increases the surveillance potential, and this increase invokes fears of a “big brother’ State.

Furthermore, data exchanged in the framework of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters may not find adequate protection, if there are no rules establishing clear protection of fundamental rights of individuals. It is, thus, necessary to lay down the requirements for transmission and making available to personal data to authorities in other states, as well as the further processing of such data.

In the EU, a high standard of protection is afforded and in order to maintain it, it needs to be determined that data could be transferred only when third countries provide an adequate level of protection.

The main regulatory instrument in the EU and the Member States is Directive 95/46/EEC, which introduces a high level of data protection and has contributed to harmonization of data protection legislation in the European Union. The Directive does not apply, however, to the processing of personal data in the course of an activity which falls outside the scope of Community law, such as those provided for by V and VI of the Treaty on European Union and in any case to processing operations concerning public security, defence, State security and the activities of the State in areas of criminal law.

On international level, there is no exemption concerning criminal law and the justice sector in the Council of Europe’s Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data of 1981. This Convention is considered as a cornerstone in data protection, as it influenced the European States and formed the basis for the provisions of the EU Directive.

In Greece, protection of personal data is enshrined in Article 9A of the amended Constitution and in Law 2472/1997, which includes rules for the lawful processing of personal data, grants rights to data subjects and establishes a control system in which the central role is granted to the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data (herein forth “Authority”). In addition, it provides for administrative and criminal sanctions, and remedies in case of non-compliance with its provisions. With the enactment of the Data Protection Act the legislator defines the essential regulatory framework regarding data procession and regulates, in effect, the flow of personal data within the society and between individuals.

The Greek law regulates in Article 5 the conditions under which processing of personal data is permitted. Data processing is lawful only if it is grounded on one of the particular instances referred to in this Article. In the framework of e-justice, the provision of para. 2 lit. d is relevant, which provides that processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or a project carried out in the exercise of public function by a public authority. This requirement is fulfilled where collection and electronic storage of data is carried out for the purpose of creating an electronic case file and further, where personal data are transferred to law enforcement authorities in the framework of police and judicial cooperation and on the basis of binding legal rules (e.g. Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 1990, Europol Convention 1995, Decision for Eurojust of 2002, etc.).

Specific rules apply for personal data of a more sensitive nature, such as those referring to criminal charges or convictions. Particularly in case of data processing in e-justice, the provision of Art. 7 (2) e is relevant, providing that processing is carried out by a Public Authority and is necessary, inter alia, for the purposes of criminal or correctional policy and pertains to the detection of offences, criminal convictions or security measures.

Additional safeguards are the provisions providing for confidentiality and security of processing and those concerning rights of the data subjects, i.e. the right to information, the right to access of data, the right to object to data processing and the right to provisional judicial protection.

Recently, with Law 3625/2007, the data protection act was amended and an exemption from the field of application was included, providing that the Law does not apply to data processing carried out by judges and public prosecutors in the administration of justice or for the need of crime investigation and concerning felonies or offences committed on intent, particularly those against life, sexual freedom and exploitation of sexuality, drugs etc. In these cases, the law states that the provisions of common legislation apply and this means that the public prosecutors and other judicial authorities are not bound by the data protection, but only by criminal law provisions, such as the Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code. Particularly the latter contains provisions providing for protection of fundamentals rights of the accused persons; however, there are no concrete provisions for data protection in this act or in other relevant legislation. This deficit is particularly apparent in the case of judicial cooperation, where there are no legislative safeguards for the individuals.

In order to address the issues concerning particularly the processing of personal data in the framework of police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters, the EU Commission submitted 2005 a Proposal for a Council Framework Decision. The proposal once accepted will fill the existing gap in this particular sector.


In particular, the Framework Decision determines common standards to ensure the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data in the framework of police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters, provided for by Title VI of the Treaty on European Union. As a result, no restrictions of data flow should be imposed, according to Article 2 (2), which states that Member States shall ensure that the disclosure of personal data to the competent authorities of other Member States is neither restricted nor prohibited for reasons connected with data protection.

The development of E-Governance and the issue of digital inclusion in Greece with particular regard to the constitutional right of e-participation

Ioannis Iglezakis

The development of E-Governance and the issue of digital inclusion in Greece with particular regard to the constitutional right of e-participation

2008 (1) The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT). http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2008_1/iglezakis

The roll-out of e-Government services is currently advancing well in Greece, which is a slow starter in the field of e-Government, but moves now with fast steps ahead. The development of e-Governance presents many chances and also risks for the society. One issue deserving attention is the issue of the digital gap between “information haves” and “information have nots”. Bridging the digital divide would need a great amount of financial resources and a strategic plan aiming at increasing access to information and building knowledge infrastructure. Although there is presently no specific programme to promote digital inclusion in Greece, the Government seems to take into account the need to address this issue.

The imperative to promote digital inclusion is enshrined in the Greek Constitution, which provides for a right to e-participation. However, this right is not directly actionable, and therefore, it does not provide the means to judicial recourse. Policies with regard to digital inclusion could be included in the definition of the Universal Service, and also in legislative programmes having this objective.

Σάββατο 25 Οκτωβρίου 2008

Βιβλιοπαρουσίαση: Ι. Ιγγλεζάκης, Το δίκαιο της πληροφορικής


Βιβλιοπαρουσίαση

Ιωάννης Ιγγλεζάκης, Το δίκαιο της πληροφορικής
Εκδόσεις Σάκκουλα, Αθήνα - Θεσσαλονίκη
ISBN/ISSN: 978-960-445-356-6
©2008, ΧΧΙΙ+353 σελίδες

Κυκλοφόρησε από τις εκδόσεις Σάκκουλα το νέο βιβλίο του Ι. Ιγγλεζάκη με τίτλο "Δίκαιο της Πληροφορικής".

Το βιβλίο αυτό αποτελεί τη συνέχεια του βιβλίου "Εισαγωγή στο δίκαιο της πληροφορικής", ωστόσο έχει εμπλουτισθεί αρκετά, ώστε να προσφέρει στον αναγνώστη - μελετητή και ερευνητή του δικαίου μια ευρύτερη εποπτεία και γνώση του δικαίου της πληροφορικής.

Ο στόχος, στον οποίο αποσκοπεί το ανά χείρας βιβλίο, είναι όχι να πραγματευθεί εξαντλητικά το δίκαιο της πληροφορικής, αλλά να παρέχει μια εποπτεία στις επιμέρους θεματικές που συγκαταλέγονται στο αντικείμενό του. Με την προσθήκη των νέων θεματικών περιοχών γίνεται δυνατό να βρει ο αναγνώστης απαντήσεις σε μια πληθώρα ζητημάτων και να πληροφορηθεί για θέματα που δεν καλύπτονται από άλλα αντίστοιχα εγχειρίδια ή δεν έχουν μελετηθεί επαρκώς από την ελληνική βιβλιογραφία, όπως είναι, λ.χ., η ηλεκτρονική διακυβέρνηση, οι ηλεκτρονικές δημοπρασίες, οι ηλεκτρονικές δημόσιες προμήθειες, η φορολόγηση των ηλεκτρονικών συναλλαγών κλπ.

Επιπλέον, το έργο έχει συμπληρωθεί με θεματικές που δεν καλύπτονταν από την πρώτη έκδοση, όπως είναι η προβληματική για τα ονόματα χώρου (domain names), η οποία έχει μελετηθεί στην ελληνική βιβλιογραφία, λαμβάνοντας όμως υπόψη τις πιο πρόσφατες αλλαγές του σχετικού νομικού πλαισίου.

Ένα βασικό πλεονέκτημα του βιβλίου είναι ότι είναι ενημερωμένο με τις πιο πρόσφατες τροποποιήσεις της ελληνικής και κοινοτικής νομοθεσίας στον εν λόγω τομέα και προσφέρει έτσι ακριβή πληροφόρηση, ενώ περιέχει παραπομπές στη σχετική βιβλιογραφία για περαιτέρω έρευνα.

Σάββατο 18 Οκτωβρίου 2008

ICT Solutions for Justice - 24th October 2008

ICT4Justice – ICT solutions for criminal justice
Final Program

October 24th 2008
STEIN building, 2 Kalapothaki Street
Thessaloniki (Greece)

“In the Commission's view, a European strategy on e-Justice will bring tangible improvements to the efficiency of the administration of justice (shorter timeframes and lower costs, for example through the use of videoconferencing), the effectiveness of judicial work (easier cooperation between national authorities) and access to justice by citizens (who often have difficulty when faced with cross-border proceedings)…….
In the light of the European Council's conclusions of 21-22 June 2007 and 14 December 2007, the Commission considers that, in theory, new legislative proposals are not necessary. The e-Justice strategy does not require any new legal foundations. It can be implemented on the basis of existing legislation, which e-Justice tools will make it possible to implement more easily.” (Memo 08/351 of the European Commission, May 29th 2008).


MORNING SESSIONS
08:30 Registration and welcome
09:20 Opening of the day (N.Zaharis – SEERC, G.Eleftherakis – City College)
Welcome to participants by the SEERC and the organising committee.
09:30 Session 1 - Towards e-Justice in judicial cases
(Chair: Prof. Nikolaos Intzesiloglou - Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece)
This session aims to provide a general overview about the ongoing ICT initiative and projects in the European Countries and the general framework the implementation of e-justice in Europe, with a specific attention to South Eastern Europe area.

Preliminary program of the session:
The e-Justice strategy of the European Commission (M.Miranda, European Commission, DG JLS)
UYAP: National Judiciary Network Project (C. Tanrıkulu, Ministry of Justice of Turkey)
Experiences from the application of IT within the judiciary (G.Naumovski, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, FYR
Macedonia)
SICP project: the new ICT architecture for criminal justice in Italy (D. Pellegrini, Ministry of Justice of Italy)

10: 30 Session 2 - ICT in the courtroom. Best practices and challenges.
(Chair: Prof. G.Eleftherakis – City College, Thessaloniki, Greece)
In this session ICT solutions implemented in the courts, the experiences and challenges related to audio-video recordings and to the usage of videoconference will be presented.
Preliminary program of the session:
Management of the trial folder: the SIDIP project (G.Caprio, Ministry of Justice of Italy)
Audio recording in court - lesson learned from E-Court (B. Podrazik, Ministry of Justice of Poland)
Electronic Court Management System - Litigation Document Management Platform (B.Malaeb, UN-ICTY, Netherlands)
Audio challenges for enhancing transcriptions: the JUMAS case study (D.Falavigna, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy)
11: 30 COFFEE BREAK
During the break, demonstrations of SIDIP systems, Automatic Speech Recognition and Electronic Authentication via
fingerprint and Mobile system for interrogation and hearings will be available.

12:00 Session 3 - ICT in civil and criminal judicial cooperation.
(Chair: Hon Dariusz Sielicki, Polish Ministry of Justice, Wroclaw, Poland)
ICT solutions implemented in the prosecutors’ offices, the challenges in the area of judicial cooperation and audio-video solutions and best practices for investigating magistrates.
Preliminary program of the session:
EPOC: Empowering EU judicial cooperation through Eurojust (M. Ruckdaeschel, Eurojust, Netherlands)
Connecting judicial workgroups in a secure workspace: the JWeB case study (K. Davies, Gov3, United Kingdom)
Collaborative environment and workflow engines for judicial cooperation (A.Waldo, Airal Conseil, France)
13:00 LUNCH OFFERED BY THE ORGANIZERS
During the break, demonstrations of SIDIP systems, Automatic Speech Recognition and Electronic Authentication via fingerprint and Mobile system for interrogation and hearings will be available. ICT4Justice 2008 Program Page 3 of 4

AFTERNOON SESSIONS
14: 15 Session 4 – Future trends of ICT technologies in e-justice.
(Chair: Prof. Tom M. Van Engers, University of Amsterdam, Law Leibniz Center for Law, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
ICT in criminal justice have relevant challenges to be faced during its deployment: communication security, non repudiation of electronic evidences, confidentiality. Best practices about architectures for secure communication, digital signature, electronic authentication in the judicial field will be presented.
Preliminary program of the session:
A view on the role of information security in e-justice (G.Eleftherakis, City College, Greece)
ICT in pretrial proceedings-the impact on defendant’s rights (D.Sielicki, Ministry of Justice of Poland
Secure communication architectures for criminal justice (S. Ferri, AMTEC-ElsagDatamat, Italy)
Secure access to judicial ICT systems (C.Cantiani, Italdata Ingegneria dell’Idea, Italy)
Videoconference in judicial proceedings: actual practices and challenges for the near future (M.Cislaghi, Project Automation S.p.A., Italy)
Privacy Protection Issues in e-Justice (I.Iglezakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)

15:45 COFFEE BREAK
16: 00 Session 5 - Management of Judicial Knowledge and Libraries
(Chair: Prof. F.Archetti – University of Milano Bicocca, Italy)
e-justice deployment will move justice from paper to digital libraries. This will pose relevant challenges and opportunity to make these libraries and the judicial knowledge more usable and easily accessible to all judicial actors.
Preliminary program of the session:
The Story of the Lawyer and the Machine (T. Van Engers, University of Amsterdam, Leibniz Center for Law, Netherlands)
Exploitation of knowledge in video (A.Briassouli, CERTH-ITI, Greece)
Audio-based Emotion Recognition for Advanced Automatic Retrieval in Judicial Domain (E.Fersini, University of Milano Bicocca, Italy)
Video Surveillance Framework for Crime Prevention and Event Indexing (I. Petras, MTA-SZTAKI, Hungary)
17: 00 Final discussion and conclusions.
(Chairs and Moderators: Prof. Nikolaos Intzesiloglou - Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece,Prof. Tom M. Van Engers, University of Amsterdam, Law Leibniz Center for Law, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
17:15 End of the day
ICT4Justice 2008 Program Page 4 of 4
Registration information.
Registration is free and available online in the conference website at www.ict4justice.org. Please, click the “registration” box on the home page and follow the registration instructions.
Additional information and contact.
Please, contact the organising committee by sending an e-mail to jweb@seerc.

Τρίτη 14 Οκτωβρίου 2008

Διημερίδα στη Θεσσαλονίκη: "Συμμετοχική Δημοσιογραφία: Blog και Νέα Μέσα"


Στις 20-21/10/2008 πραγματοποιείται διημερίδα στη Θεσσαλονίκη με θέμα "Συμμετοχική Δημοσιογραφία: Blog και Νέα Μέσα" στο Τελλόγλειο. Στο πλαίσιο της διημερίδα αυτής συζητούνται θέματα που έχουν να κάνουν με την ανάδειξη της συμμετοχικής δημοσιογραφίας, η οποία είναι αποτέλεσμα της αξιοποίησης των νέων μέσων, όπως είναι τα ιστολόγια.


Τα θέματα που προβάλλονται είναι ειδικότερα τα εξής:

• Πώς επηρεάζεται η παραδοσιακή δημοσιογραφία από τη νέα μιντιακή πραγματικότητα.

• Τι είναι η συμμετοχική δημοσιογραφία, ποιες οι διαφορές της με την παραδοσιακή και ποιος ο ρόλος των παραδοσιακών δημοσιογράφων στο παραπάνω πλαίσιο.

• Πώς μετεξελίσσεται η έννοια της δημοσιογραφικής ταυτότητας και της δημοσιογραφικής εργασίας από τη στιγμή που ο καθένας δύναται να έχει πρόσβαση στο διαδίκτυο και ως εκ τούτου έχει τη δυνατότητα δημόσιας έκφρασης.

• Ψηφιακή ταυτότητα, ψηφιακό υποκείμενο. Νομική διάσταση.

• Η σχέση του πολίτη με τα Νέα Μέσα. Κατά πόσο μπορεί να εμπιστευτεί την "είδηση" στο Διαδίκτυο.

• Η σχέση του Πανεπιστημίου με τα Νέα Μέσα.

Για το πρόγραμμα βλ. εδώ.

Call for Papers CEPE 2009 International Computer Ethics Conference


Call for Papers
CEPE 2009
International Computer Ethics Conference

Eighth International Conference of
Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry
June 27-29
Ionian University
Corfu, Greece



Deadline for abstracts: 10 November 2008
Papers. CEPE2009 welcomes high quality paper and panel proposals in all areas of computer/IT ethics. This includes, but is not limited to, ethical issues relating to:
Online communities, the virtual and the “real”
Privacy, data protection, RFID, surveillance, CCTV, spam, phishing, and spyware
Global computing and intercultural information ethics
Information access, search engines, and the digital divide
Democracy and the internet; computing technology and natural disasters
Virtuality, simulation and reproduction
Computing, identity and difference: gender, ethnicity, race, religion
pen source; virtual ownership; intellectual property & copyright
Emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology, supercomputing, Internet2, robotics, biomedicine, bioinformatics and bioengineering
New military, security and law enforcement applications of IT
New developments in artificial intelligence, artificial agents, embedded systems and artificial life.

We particularly welcome papers from applied ethics fields other than computer ethics that focus on any of the above areas, as well as papers from computer science professionals who combine their state-of-the-art knowledge of IT with ethical analysis.
Papers will be accepted on the basis of a submitted abstract, which will be refereed.
An abstract must be between 1200 and 1400 words in length (references included) and submitted via email as embedded plain text or an attachment in RTF or WORD or PDF format.
Abstracts must be submitted no later than 10 November 2008. Authors will be informed of the decision of the referees by 30 January 2009. Full papers must be submitted by 29 April 2009.
Panel Proposals. We will also accept proposals for panel discussions, also to be submitted by 10 November 2008. Panel proposals must include a statement of the general topic and an overview of the specific questions or issues to be addressed. In addition, the proposal should include a list of the panelists involved, their expertise in this area, and whether they have indicated that they are willing to participate. Please use the Panel Proposal Form that will soon be available on the CEPE2009 website.

The CEPE conference series is recognized as one of the premier international events on computer and information ethics attended by delegates from all over the world. Conferences are held about every 24 months, alternating between Europe and the United States. CEPE 2009 is the eighth conference in the series.

Organizing Committee:
• Maria Bottis, Ionian University, Greece
• Kenneth Himma, Seattle Pacific University, USA
• Frances Grodzinsky, Sacred Heart University, USA
• Richard Spinello, Boston College, USA
• Herman Tavani, Rivier College, USA
• Panayiotis Vlamos, Ionian University, Greece

Program Committee: TBA


Keynote speakers: TBA

Presidential Address

Important Dates
• 10 November 2008 • Deadline for submission of paper abstracts
• 10 November 2008 • Deadline proposals for panel discussions
• 30 January 2009 • Referee decision sent to those who have submitted paper or panel proposals
• 29 April 2009 • Deadline submission Papers


History
The CEPE conference series is recognized as one of the premier international events on computer and information ethics attended by delegates from all over the world. Conferences are held about every 24 months, alternating between Europe and the United States. CEPE 2009 is the eighth conference in the series.

CEPE2009 Conference Fees and Registration

Information about conference fees and registration will be available soon.

Δευτέρα 13 Οκτωβρίου 2008

International Congress Cagliari, 14-15 November 2008 TELEMATIC ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES IN EUROPE

International Congress
Cagliari, 14-15 November 2008
TELEMATIC ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES IN
EUROPE


Systematic studies on the ‘dematerialization’ of administrative activity (digital administration- e-government) indicate that there has been considerable development in the following areas:

* Electronic signature and electronic document validity
* Front office
* Statement of principles on the need for telematic cooperation among administrative bodies

Research studies have nevertheless revealed that the development of the electronic signature and electronic documents has not been and still is not sufficient for the functioning of the bureaucratic machinery for a basic reason that can no longer be disregarded: the electronic administrative document is seldom the product of a single agent; the most important processes and procedures in public administration are almost always the result of cooperation between several offices and autonomous administrative bodies, each of which has the task of protecting and safeguarding the different public interests involved in such procedures.

Until now, the move towards ‘dematerialization’ has mainly concerned the static aspects (such as the electronic document), while the regulation of the dynamic aspects has been neglected; by “dynamic aspects” we mean the formal activity necessary for the production of an electronic document as the result of cooperation among offices and public bodies, i.e. the telematic administrative procedure.


European telematic administrative procedures

A common European regulation for a telematic administrative process is becoming more and more urgent, in order to avoid each member state adopting different and diverse solutions, interfering with the integration of juridical systems and hindering the smooth interaction between the European citizen (and entrepreneurs) and the public administration offices in whatever country of the European Union.

Beyond this basic question, there is also a need to put into effect the telematic integration of processes in which State members and community institutions are involved (vertical integration) and those processes in which several State members are involved (horizontal integration: welfare, taxation system). Finally, the internal administration of community institutions themselves should start utilizing these solutions, both for its improved functioning and for the above-mentioned need for vertical integration.

Due to the rise in the cost of oil, every effort aiming at reducing the need for the commuting mobility of civil servants is to be pursued with the utmost commitment. Regulating all bureaucratic processes is a prime objective today in order to ensure the growth of teleworking within administrations, between offices (such as telematic conferences), and between other equipped, peripheral units. The ultimate goal is promoting home-based teleworking, so far almost impossible to activate owing to the absence of clear regulations on administrative processes.


Provisional work program

In the event of positive feedback regarding the request for funding from some public bodies, several meetings will be scheduled followed by a further stage for the drafting of a (possible) text for a community directive.

*

Preparatory events: July and September 2008: one or more preliminary meetings between the small circle of those organising the congress, European commission representatives, and the other national partners involved, in order to elaborate a working document which will be discussed during the congress.
*

Main event: 14th and 15th november 2008: a European congress, where the convenors will be the delegates from the State members and from the European Commission; members of the CNIPA and representatives/leading figures in the Court of Cassation.
*

Following events: One or more restricted meetings during which, based on the congress’ results, a text on the matter of electronic administrative procedures will be drafted and then proposed to the European Commission to be used for a proposal of directive addressed to the European Parliament and Council in a jointly adopted decision.
*

Permanent forum: As soon as possible a permanent forum will be start up, where every participant at the research will insert their proposals, organized into: a) motivations; b) problems; c) proposals of law. Every participant will have hisuser name and his password to manage his account, and he will be able to read every text written by the other participants.



Initiative promoting body and involved subjects

The University of Cagliari has taken the initiative for these meetings, since research carried out here has demonstrated the unavoidable necessity for the implementation of regulations for telematic administrative procedures and that it is now opportune that this discipline should have a common European basis. The promoting body is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary of research, since the idea of dematerialization of the administrative process was firstly conceived in the distant year of 1978, presented in a congress at the Court of Cassation, and developed later as a specific research doctorate.

The Court of Cassation and the CNIPA (National Centre for the Information system in Public Administration) are participating in the project.

The initiative is under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic.


Invitation

The organizing staff will invite representatives from each State member of the EU and delegates from the European Commission to participate in the project.

The invitation is for the plenary meeting and for possible workshops in July, September, and October 2008 for selected groups. The financial plan in preparation provides for the refund of expenses for the invited guests.

Τετάρτη 1 Οκτωβρίου 2008

Συνέδριο για τις νέες τεχνολογίες



Tilburg 10-11.12.2008

Συνέδριο: Η ανατρεπτική προοπτική στη ρύθμιση των νέων τεχνολογιών
(Tilting perspectives on regulating technologies)

Innovative technologies – ICT, biotechnology, nanotechnologies – have a huge impact on society. Regulating these technologies is a complex effort. This conference aims at bringing academic knowledge and policy approaches about regulating technology a step forward by looking at issues from a multidisciplinary angle. Regulating technologies involves different regulatory approaches giving rise to fundamental questions.
For instance: Do biotechnology and ICT innovations alter people’s identity? Can ICT regulation profit from experiences in dealing with sensitive issues in genetics? How can policy-makers approach regulatory issues in the context of polycentric governance? What use is the heuristic of applying ‘off-line’ rules to the ‘on-line’ environment, when ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ worlds converge? How can respect for human dignity and human rights be maintained in an era of human enhancement and surveillance? In what stage should moral values be taken into account in the design of technologies? If at all, which values?