Cursussyllabus
Legal, Ethical and Social Issues of Artificial Intelligence (011552)
Course Syllabus
1st Semester 2025-26 / Thursdays 13.00 -15.00 / Lecture room: P2.0.05
Professor Dr. Rosamunde Elise Van Brakel
Teaching assistant
Bram Visser
Welcome to the course ‘Legal, Ethical and Social Issues of Artificial Intelligence’ (LESAI). This page provides relevant information necessary to successfully navigate the course. LESAI is an interdisciplinary course that is required in the specialisation Law & Technology of the Masters of Law and and optional course for students from the specialisation Social Law, Master Criminology, 3rd year Bachelor in AI and as micro-credential. It is a course that helps you prepare for your future career as AI is increasingly embedded in the public and private sector. More specifically this course prepares you for policy jobs in national and international governmental bodies or the private sector, to work at non-governmental organisations, human rights organisations and to work for supervisory authorities such as data protection and AI commissions and as data protection/AI officer in organisations and companies and finally also for academic and research positions.
Objectives
You will develop critical thinking and in-depth interdisciplinary knowledge of AI theory and practice through various forms of knowledge transfer and independent study. You will also gain critical insight into the main legal, ethical, and social aspects of AI and you will acquire insight of different research approaches of AI, with a special attention to interdisciplinarity and research.
Learning Goals
The student can:
- explain and provide examples of the main legal, ethical, and social challenges posed by AI practices in the public and private sector in English.
- discuss the current regulatory and policy developments of AI in English.
- analyze AI practices in the public and private sectors in a critical and interdisciplinary way by identifying and evaluating their legal, ethical, and social challenges using the required literature provided in the course syllabus.
- apply social and ethical theoretical frameworks of the consequences of AI to analyze and evaluate AI practices from the public and private sector.
- construct coherent, well-substantiated arguments and can formulate policy recommendations regarding the responsible practices of AI in the public and private sector, grounded in academic literature, legal frameworks and empirical research.
LESAI contributes to the following general learning goals of the Master in Laws
Students have broad and in-depth knowledge and understanding of Belgian, international and European law.
Students have specialised knowledge in one or more areas of law, corresponding to their chosen specialisation: civil and procedural law, criminology, economic law, international and European law, tax law, public law, social law, criminal law.
Students are able to critically reflect on law as an evolutionary social phenomenon (whether universal or not); they are able to contextualise and understand new developments and know that they must continuously update their knowledge.
Students situate their thorough knowledge of law in a broad context – political, economic, legal theory, historical, philosophical, ethical, psychological, sociological or cultural.
Supported by the principles of free inquiry, students are able to think and act independently and critically, learn independently and reflect critically on the role and responsibility of the lawyer towards citizens and legal institutions.
Students understand how legal rules are established, the principles on which they are based, and the objectives they are intended to achieve; they know that these rules and principles and their interpretation evolve and are able to reflect critically on them.
Students can apply their advanced theoretical and practical knowledge to identify problems and situate them in their context, and to propose a workable solution using the appropriate methodology (in particular, discovery, critical analysis and interpretation of texts)
Study materials
There are mandatory readings before each lecture that you can find in the schedule at the bottom of the homepage of the course. This schedule provides links to the pages where you can find the study material per lecture. Slides and lecture recordings will also be added to each lecture.
Course expectations
Attendance: This class will be conducted with a focus on in-class discussions and exercises.
Because of this format, if you want to be well-prepared for the exam you are expected to attend all classes.
Reading: Complete all readings (and other assignments) prior to the class meeting for which they are scheduled.
Evaluation
Written open book exam. More elaborate information about the expectations and structure of the exam will be given during the first and last lecture and more information will appear under 'Evaluation'