EU Law Discussion Group Seminar: Global Perspectives on Digitalised Welfare

This is a warm invitation to an EU Law Discussion Group Seminar, co-organised with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

Victoria Adelmant
Director of the Digital Welfare State and Human Rights Project
Adjunct Professor of Law and Clinical Law
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice | New York University School of Law
https://chrgj.org/technology-and-human-rights/

Global Perspectives on Digitalised Welfare

Around the world, governments are abandoning digitalised welfare systems after serious harm has emerged. In Australia, the so-called ‘Robodebt’ system, designed to detect fraud among welfare applications, resulted in serious errors, with tens of thousands falsely accused of fraud. This generated severe exclusions and harm to affected individuals—ultimately leading to class settlements and the scrapping of the system. In the Netherlands, too, an algorithmic system erroneously accused tens of thousands of individuals of welfare fraud, leading to distress and destitution. The similarities are striking—in different parts of the world, government agencies have deployed almost identical systems in the welfare sphere, without legal safeguards nor adequate institutional oversight. Some public agencies have decided to abandon some such algorithmic systems in welfare contexts. Some have faced lawsuits; others have abandoned such systems due to ethical concerns, legal considerations, or because the tools are ineffective. But even as similar issues result from the deployment of the same kinds of systems across very different contexts, and even as governments scrap such systems, lessons are not being learned. Where government agencies consider developing and deploying an algorithmic welfare tool, they rarely (if ever) look to other countries’ experiences; systematic analysis of comparative case studies is not taking place. As scholars, practitioners, and governments increasingly accept the importance of ex ante impact assessments of automated tools in public governance, it will be vital to ensure that comparative analysis and cross-border exchange are brought much more centrally into such exercises.

The seminar starts at 12.15, respecting an academic quarter, and involves 20-30 minutes of presentation, followed by 15-30 minutes of discussion. 

Convenors: Agnė Oseckytė, Sarah de Heer, Caroline Ferngren
Senior Members: Dr Petra Gyöngyi, Dr Aurelija Lukoseviciene and Dr Alezini Loxa
Co-organiser: Sue Anne Teo, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law