Electronic Democracy and Digital Justice: Driving Principles for AI Regulation in the Prism of the Human Rights

A growing debate in several European fora is paving the way for future rules for Artificial Intelligence (AI). A principles-based approach prevails, with various lists of principles drawn up in recent years. These lists, which are often built on human rights, are only a starting point for a future regulation. It is now necessary to move forward, turning abstract principles into a context-based response to the challenges of AI. This article therefore places the principles and operational rules of the current European and international human rights framework in the context of AI applications in two core, and little explored, areas of digital transformation: electronic democracy and digital justice. Several binding and non-binding legal instruments are available for each of these areas, but they were adopted in a pre-AI era, which affects their effectiveness in providing an adequate and specific response to the challenges of AI. Although the existing guiding principles remain valid, their application should therefore be reconsidered in the light of the social and technical changes induced by AI. To contribute to the ongoing debate on future AI regulation, this article outlines a contextualised application of the principles governing e-democracy and digital justice in view of current and future AI applications.