From Outer Space to Algorithms: What Can Administrative Law Learn from International State Responsibility Regimes?

Abstract

The ongoing process of digital transformation across all sectors of public life is fundamentally transformative, parallelling the revolutionary nature of the technologies that drive it. The development and deployment of artificial intelligence in public administration pose challenges to administrative law that are structurally analogous to those encountered by international law in relation to state activities in outer space: the absence of complete control, high levels of risk, the involvement of private actors, and the necessity of attributing ultimate responsibility to the state as the “ultimate guarantor”.

The analogy advanced here is necessarily broad, given that the domains in question appear, prima facie, to be entirely distinct. Nevertheless, the effort to address questions such as who bears responsibility (and concomitant risk) for decisions made by AI, the legal status of AI and the possibility of conferring legal personality upon it, and the nature of the relationship between the state and private actors with regard to AI, reflects longstanding inquiries within the broader space sector. These inquiries encompass issues of accountability, the interaction between the state and private entities engaged in space activities, and the adequacy of the existing treaty framework governing such activities, including considerations for its potential modification where deficiencies are identified.