Algorethics and Legal informatics

Abstract

The article retraces the main stages of my involvement in the field of Legal Informatics, drawing some reflections on ethics, the relationship between mind and machine, and alternative forms of justice. The first part reconstructs the events that involved me as director of IDG in the 1970s and my reflections on metadocumentary informatics from a "free law" perspective. In the second part I reconstruct the characters of what I have called "algorethics", which brings together the most advanced forms of ethics, now inextricably linked to technology. The third part discusses the algorithmic hypothesis of the mind and the notion of the "ultimate algorithm" with its implications for freedom and determinism. The last part traces an outline of so-called restorative justice, based on the recomposition of the relationship between offender and victim, discussing the potential of information technology in this field.