Biography

In 2010, having completed MA programmes in both Vilnius (Lithuania) and Bologna (Italy), I was awarded a PhD degree by the Bologna University School of Law under a programme called ‘Law and the New Technologies: Legal Informatics and IT Law’. My dissertation was devoted to the relationship between the law and technological innovation, a subject I investigated by looking at the patent-law treatment of intelligent computer programmes.
While researching my PhD dissertation I spent a period of study at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and thereafter took part in several European research projects devoted to the social, political, and legal aspects of technological development and was also awarded a post-doctoral research grant at the Bologna University School of Law, where I am still working.
My main interest is in computer science and law, with a focus on the legal issues related to the development of artificial intelligence: on the one hand I am interested in the problem of how liability for highly sophisticated intelligent programmes should be ascribed to human and artificial agents, or shared among them, while on the other hand I am also interested in what legal status artificial intelligent agents should be recognized as having in the future and why. I am also interested in Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STS), with a focus on information and communication technologies and on the philosophy of technology. Looking ahead, my research plan is to broaden my perspective by bringing a range of disciplines to bear on an investigation of these issues, looking to apply such insights into working out new paradigms that may lead to a more harmonious relationship between law, technology, and society.