Abstract
The combined use of computers and telecommunications and the latest evolution in the field of Artificial Intelligence brought along new ways of contracting and of expressing will and declarations. The question is, how far we can go in considering computer intelligence and autonomy, how can we legally deal with a new form of electronic behaviour capable of autonomous action? In the field of contracting, through Intelligent Electronic Agents, there is an imperious need of analysing the question of expression of consent, and two main possibilities have been proposed: considering electronic devices as mere machines or tools, or considering electronic devices as legal persons. Another possibility that has been frequently mentioned consists in the application of the rules of agency to electronic transactions. Meanwhile, the question remains: would it possible, under a Civil Law framework, to apply the notions of “legal personhood” and “representation” to electronic agents? It is obvious that existing legal norms are not fit for such an endeavouring challenge. Yet, the virtual world exists and it requires a new but realistic legal approach on software agents, in order to enhance the use of electronic commerce in a global world.
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Notes
––and yet, the big appes surely deserve some kind of legal protection, and animal’s rights is an issue being debated (Araújo 2003).
––“Computers are obviously constituted differently than organisations; organisations are social systems while computers are information systems. But there is one key similarity: with organisations, the search is for the separation of the organisation’s identity and the actions from those of its membership. In other words, it is the social capacity for collective action that is material. With computers, the search is also for the separation of the computer’s identity and actions from its human controllers”, (Allen and Widdison 1996).
“...субектами права юридических лиц, которые по сути не обладают ни физическими характеристиками, ни волей” (“…legal subjects collective persons, which really don’t possess neither physical characteristics nor will”) (Kemradj 2002). However, legal doctrine usually considers the will of legal persons as distinct of the will of their (human) members. In that sense, corporate bodies have a will of their own, as their “deliberative organs” “form the will of the collective persons”(de Andrade 1974).
Stating that in some corporate bodies a patrimony might even not be required, being required “only patrimonial capacity––and maybe not even that, as collective personality is not circumscribed to patrimonial relations” (de Andrade 1974).
Manuel de Andrade also speaks of “common or collective” finality, relating to corporate body’s requirements (de Andrade 1974).
and not be personified for the practice of a single, instantaneous act (Øren 2003).
“Un agente può moltiplicarsi in diverse copie, che possono dividersi il lavoro ...e coordinare le proprie attivittà mediante scambio di messaggi” (“an agent is capable of dividing itself in several copies, that might divide the work among themselves ... and coordinate their own activities throughout message exchanges”) (Sartor 2003).
Accepting the fact that a machine could autonomously be a party in a contract would generate liability problems in case of non-performance or error” (Lerouge 2000).
“The acting in the name of someone else must be revealed to the counterparty” (de Ascensão 1999).
The representative reflects and decides something in the place of the principal. He’s got, at least, the possibility to declare something, or not to declare, as he may believe more appropriate under the circumstances (de Andrade 1974).
Manuel de Andrade speaks of “legitimacy or representative authority” (de Andrade 1974).
See Kerr 1999.
Law usually limits the possibility for the representative of having himself replaced by someone else, “due to the relation of trust that must exist between represented and representative” (de Ascensão 1999).
Advocating the possibility of “an electronic agent qualifying as a “branch, agency or other establishment” (Øren 2003).
“It is obvious that the existing legal regulations, as they are at present, are not sufficient for properly regulating the relations created not only between the agent and the party that uses it in the e-commerce world but, above all, between the agent and the third party who enters into the contract with it” (de Miglio et al. 2003).
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Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper is included in Intelligent Agents and Legal Relations project (POCTI/JUR/57221/2004), which is a research project supported by FCT (Science & Technology Foundation––Portugal).
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Andrade, F., Novais, P., Machado, J. et al. Contracting agents: legal personality and representation. Artif Intell Law 15, 357–373 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10506-007-9046-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10506-007-9046-0