AI, algorithms and public administration in Italy

Abstract

The problem of the legitimacy of administrative decisions adopted through algorithms has been the object of considerable attention from legal doctrine and administrative jurisprudence in Italy. Indeed, while legislation does not offer suitable solutions to the new challenges, the administrative judge is defining the conditions of admissibility in algorithmic decisions, applying the principles of administrative procedure to the new problems. Following an initial phase in which jurisprudence seemed to come to exclude the admissibility of automated decisions, more recent jurisprudence seems to be directed towards admitting these kinds of decisions, although it requires appropriate guarantees, above all in transparency. With its latest judgement, enacted in December 2019, the Council of State defines these conditions in a more general way, as such beginning to delineate some initial ‘commandments’ of algorithmic legislation which are significantly inspired by the principles relating to the automated processing of personal data contained in the European regulations on the protection of personal data.