GONZAGA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE
Artificial
Intelligence,
Government,
Corporation &
Human Rights
Exploring artificial
intelligence's impact on
human rights, equality, justice,
and everyday human lives.
May 26-27, 2022
Florence, Italy
Gonzaga University School of Law Florence Summer Program 2022, Gonzaga in
Florence, Center for Civil and Human Rights-Gonzaga Law, and Global Legal
Education Program Present
Artificial Intelligence, Government, Corporation and Human Rights
An Annual International Human Rights Conference
Agenda
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Venue - Palazzo Budini Gatai, Florence, Italy
6:00-8:00 PM Pre-conference Reception
6:30 PM Introductory Comments by Hosts and Keynote Speaker
Friday, May 27, 2022
Venue – British Institute of Florence (Instituto Britannico)
8:00 - 8:30 AM Check in
8:30 - 9:00 AM Opening Remarks
Simon Gammel, Director of the British Institute of Florence
Dean Jason Houston
Dean Jacob Rooksby
Professor Upendra Acharya
9:00 - 9:10 AM Remarks on the Theme
Ragini Gupta, U.S. Consul General in Florence
9:10 - 9:30 AM Break
9:30 - 10:45 AM Panel I
AI System, Criminal Proceeding, Due Process and Judicial
Decision Making
Moderator Professor Drew Simshaw
Professor Cynthia Boyer
Professor Elena Falletti
Professor Chris Chambers Goodman
Justice Marin Mrčela and Professor Igor Vuletic
10:45 - 11:15 AM Break
11:15 - 12:30 PM Panel II
AI - Privacy, Predictive Policing, Children Rights and Hate
Speech
Moderator, Professor Agnieszka McPeak
Dr. Natalie Alkiviadou
Dr. Onur Cagdas Artantas
Professor E. Prema and Professor V. Shyam Sunder
Professor Faiza Semai
12:30 - 2:00 PM Lunch
2:00 – 2:40 PM Keynote
Professor Frank Pasquale Author of Black Box Society: The
Secret Algorithms that Control Money and Information and
New Laws of Robotics
2:40 – 3:00 PM Q&A
3:00 – 3:30 PM Break
3:30- 4:45 PM Panel III
Human Rights Approach to AI, Human Rights of Non-
humans, and Ethics of AI
Moderator, Professor Upendra Acharya
Professor James M. Cooper
Professor Joana de Souza Machado and Sergio Marcos Negri
Professor John C. Mubangizi
4:45 - 5:00 PM Closing Remarks
5:15 – 6:00 PM International Conflict Mediation Competition
Award Ceremony
6:00 - 9:30 PM Apericena dinner and Social at Harry’s Bar
Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci 22/R
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
Keynote Speaker
Frank Pasquale
Frank Pasquale is an expert on the law of
artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and
machine learning. He is a Professor of Law at
Brooklyn Law School, a Visiting Scholar at the
AI Now Institute, an Affiliate Fellow at Yale
University's Information Society Project, and a
member of the American Law Institute. Before
coming to Brooklyn, he was Piper & Marbury Professor of Law at the University of
Maryland and Schering-Plough Professor of Health Care Regulation and Enforcement at
Seton Hall University. He was ranked the 3rd most cited US scholar in law & technology in
2021 (based on the 2015-2020 Sisk study data).
He is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law
(CRCL), based in the Netherlands, and a member of an Australian Research Council (ARC)
Centre of Excellence on Automated Decision-Making & Society (ADM+S). His book The
Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information (Harvard
University Press 2015) has been recognized internationally as a landmark study on the law
and political economy of information asymmetries. His latest book, New Laws of Robotics:
Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI (Harvard University Press 2020) develops a new
political economy of automation, in which human capacities are the irreplaceable center
of an inclusive economy.
Opening Speaker
Ragini Gupta
Ragini Gupta joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 2002. In July 2020, Ms. Gupta assumed
the position of Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Florence, Italy. From 2013-2017,
Ms. Gupta was Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan. She
has also been assigned to the U.S. missions to Mexico, Pakistan, and India, where she
served in consular, economic and public affairs positions. Among her Washington
assignments, Ms. Gupta served as Director of the Office of Broadcast Services. She also
mentored mid-level foreign service officers as a Career Development Officer in the Bureau
of Human Resources. She is the recipient of four individual Superior Honor Awards and a
nominee for the Edward R. Murrow Award. Prior to the Foreign Service, Ms. Gupta was a
practicing attorney at several large law firms in New York city and litigated civil rights
cases for Sabel & Sabel, PC in Montgomery, Alabama. She holds a Juris Doctor degree
from New York University School of Law and a Master of Science degree in National
Security Strategy from the National War College. She is married to fellow foreign service
officer Rohit Nepal and has two children. Her interests include the arts, exploring diverse
culinary traditions, and yoga.
Upendra Acharya
Dr. Upendra D. Acharya is a professor of law and distinguished scholar of international
law at Gonzaga University Law School. He is also the director of the Global Legal
Education Program. He holds an S.J.D. (University of Wisconsin law School, Madison), an
LL. M. (University of Utah, College of Law), Master of Comparative Law (University of
Delhi, India), and an LL.B. (Tribhuvan University, Nepal). Prof. Acharya has represented
landmark cases in the Supreme Court of Nepal, including daughters’ right to inherent
property, and the Godabary Marble Case that resulted in the enactment of an
Environmental Protection Act in Nepal. He also has worked toward eradicating bonded
labor systems in far western areas of Nepal. He served as a professor at the Faculty of
Law, Tribhuvan University, and practiced law in the Supreme Court of Nepal. He has been
invited to serve as a Visiting Professor and has spoken/ presented papers in many
countries, including, China, France, India, Nepal, Mexico, Philippines, Canada, Spain, Italy,
Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Lebanon, and Brazil. Professor Acharya has
presented and written papers on cutting-edge issues of international law, including
terrorism, U.S. Foreign Policy, globalization, international economic law, and human rights
and human security. He is the Chair of the Human Rights Special Interest Group of Asian
Society of International Law (head quarter in Singapore) and is in leadership position in
several national and international professional organizations.
Natalie Alkiviadou
Natalie Alkiviadou’s research focuses on free speech, ‘hate speech’ and the far-right. She
has written three monographs, one on ‘The Far-Right in International and European Law’
(2019), the other entitled ‘Legal Challenges to the Far-Right: Lessons from England and
Wales’ (2019) and, lastly, ‘The Far-Right in Greece and the Law’ (May 2022) all published
by Routledge. She has several publications in a wide range of peer-reviewed journals on
the theme of hate speech. Natalie has worked in higher education teaching subjects
related to International Human Rights Law and European Law. She has worked with civil
society, educators and public servants in the framework of training and capacity building
on the freedom of expression and related themes. Natalie is Senior Research Fellow at
Justitia, working on the Future of Free Speech project.
Onur Cagdas Artantas
Onur Cagdas Artantas is a recent Ph.D. graduate (Magna cum laude) from Bucerius Law
School in Hamburg. He was awarded a full Ph.D. scholarship by the German Academic
Exchange Program (DAAD) for two consecutive years. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with
the promotion of green electricity in four legal spheres: WTO, EU, Germany, and Turkey.
He works as a research assistant at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Law, Administrative
Law Department. He is an LL.B. and public law LL.M. graduate of the Ankara University
Faculty of Law. Artantas' scholarly work focuses mainly on the law and policy aspects of
the IT law and global sustainability efforts, such as automated decision making, green
finance, and climate protection. More broadly, he is interested in regulation and
international economic law.
Cynthia Boyer
Dr. Cynthia Boyer lectures at the Institut National Universitaire Champollion in France.
She is a member of the research group Framespa- Thématique “Logiques du Commun”.
She is a visiting professor at the Law School, Pazmany University, Budapest (Hungary). She
holds a Ph.D. in political science and graduated in U.S constitutional law and politics
(University of Massachusetts). Her field of research includes the intersection of U.S politics
and constitutional law, civil liberties and racial discrimination. She is a Fulbright scholar in
U.S politics and law. Her scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties
Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Berkeley Public Policy Press, the Institute of Governmental
Studies and the California Constitution Center, The Constitutional Law Journal, Elon Law
Review and other American and international journals and reviews.
James Cooper
James Cooper is Professor of Law and Director of International Legal Studies at California
Western School of Law in San Diego, California, where he has also served as Associate
Dean, Experiential Learning, and an Assistant Dean. Professor Cooper is also serving as a
Fellow of Singapore University of Social Sciences to 2023. He has been a change agent
for countries around the Americas for more than two decades, consulting for the U.S.
Departments of Justice and State, the OAS, USAID, USPTO, the Inter-American
Development Bank, the Bolivian President’s Office for the Constituent Assembly
negotiations, Mexico’s Executive Branch, Paraguay’s Congress, and other international
and regional aid organizations and technical cooperation agencies. An Intellectual
Property and trade scholar, he has served on the U.S. government delegation to the World
Intellectual Property Organization. He is a member of the Protocol Braintrust and Co-
curator for Digital Davos.
Joana de Souza Machado
Professor of Constitutional Law with tenure (Department of Public Law) and Faculty
Member of the Law and Innovation Graduate Program at the Federal University of Juiz de
Fora, Brazil. Ph.D. and MSSc in Theory of State and Constitutional Law (PUC-Rio), with a
doctoral period of residence at Harvard Law School and as a visiting scholar at Boston
College Law School.
Elena Falletti
Elena Falletti is senior researcher of comparative private law and law and technology at
the Carlo Cattaneo University, Castellanza (VA), Italy. She carried out her Ph.D. in
Comparative Law at the University "Statale" in Milan in 2006. When she was Ph.D.
candidate she gained a DAAD Stipendium and a Marie Curie Fellowship at the
Westfälische Wilhelm-Universität Münster (Germany). She gained a post-doctoral
Fellowship at the Max Planck Institut für Geistiges Eigentum of Munich (Germany). She
published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and publications and undertook
experiences of teaching and research in Europe and abroad.
Christine Goodman
Professor Goodman teaches Constitutional Law, Racial Justice, Evidence, and
Comparative Anti-Discrimination Law. She has participated in the Sudreau Global Justice
Program in both Uganda and India, and taught in Pepperdine’s London Law Program.
Professor Goodman writes on equal protection topics, including implicit bias, algorithmic
bias, affirmative action, preferences, diversity and racial privacy, as well as evidentiary
issues. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School, and Harvard College. Professor Goodman
is the Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion, and Outreach of the Los Angeles County Bar
Association and Secretary of LACBA's Diversity in the Profession Section, as well as
Treasurer of the National Conference of Women' Bar Associations. She also serves on
the board of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, and was the 2016-2017 President
of California Women Lawyers. She is a frequent speaker on the subjects of diversity,
equity & inclusion, as well as implicit and algorithmic bias.
Jason Houston
Dr. Jason Houston Dean and Associate Professor of Italian at Gonzaga in Florence, where
he teaches Dante and leads the Gonzaga in Florence campus. He completed his BA in
Italian and Medieval Studies at the University of Oregon. He went on take his M.Phil in
Medieval Studies and Ph.D. in Italian Language and Literature at Yale University in 2003.
From 2003 to 2016, he was Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor of Italian at
the University of Oklahoma, where he created a new Bachelor of Arts program in Italian,
developed a new study center for OU in Arezzo Italy, and managed a public/private
partnership between OU/ENEL Green Power/Capitoline Museums of Rome. His research
focuses on Giovanni Boccaccio and his complicated relationships with other key Trecento
Italian authors: Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, and Zanobi da Strada. His publications
include a monograph, numerous articles, edited volumes of scholarship, and review articles
in journals such as MLN, Dante Studies, Studi Sul Boccaccio, Renaissance Quarterly, and
Speculum. He is currently completing a translation into English of Boccaccio's minor Latin
works.
Sergio Marcos Carvalho de Avila Negri
Professor of Private Law with tenure (Department of Private Law) and Faculty Member of
the Law and Innovation Graduate Program at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
Ph.D. and MSSc in Private Law (UERJ), with a specialization degree in Private Law at
Camerino's University (UNICAM), Italy.
Agnieszka McPeak
Agnieszka McPeak is an Associate Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Faculty
Scholarship. She is also the Director of the Center for Law, Ethics, and Commerce. Before
joining the Gonzaga Law faculty in 2020, Professor McPeak also taught at the University
of Toledo College of Law and Duquesne University School of Law. She began her teaching
career at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law as a Westerfield Fellow. Professor
McPeak’s research and writing focus on the intersection of law and technology,
particularly as it relates to social media, ethics, privacy, and the innovation and sharing
economies. Professor McPeak’s scholarship has been published in Wisconsin Law Review,
Wake Forest Law Review, Connecticut Law Review, and Arizona State Law Journal, among
others. Additionally, her work has been cited in several legal opinions, including a recent
decision by the highest court of New York redefining the scope of civil discovery of social
media content.
Marin Mrčela
Marin Mrčela is Justice of the Supreme Court of Croatia. He obtained his PhD at the
Zagreb Faculty of Law and currently is Associated Professor of Criminal Law at Law
Faculty Osijek. He is the President of the Council of Europe's Group of States against
Corruption (GRECO). Prior to becoming President of GRECO, Justice Mrčela was a
longstanding member of its Bureau, where he took a decisive role in designing and pushing
forward an evaluation of political financing in Europe and the United States of America.
Within Croatia, he has assumed various presidencies and memberships of key professional
institutions, including the Association of Judges and the Academy of Legal Sciences. He
has also served as a judge in war crime cases. Justice Mrčela was a Humbert Humphrey
Fellow at the American University in Washington DC. He has given lectures on corruption
and security topics at numerous universities and institutions around the world.
John C Mubangizi
Professor John C Mubangizi has been Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of the
Free State, South Africa, since 2018. Before that, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor and
Head of College of Law and Management Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal for
ten years. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), a Master’s in Public Law (LLM) and a
Doctorate in Law (LLD). He is the author of the book entitled The Protection of Human
Rights in South Africa: A Legal and Practical Guide (Juta & Company: 2004 and 2013) and
has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on human rights. He has also
presented papers at several national and international conferences. Professor Mubangizi
is a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and served as Advisor and
Member of the ASSAf Council (2012 – 2015). He also served as Chair of the Higher
Education Quality Committee (HEQC) and a Member of the Council on Higher Education
(CHE) of South Africa (2015 – 2018).
E. Prema
E. Prema has served as Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for VIT School of Law,
Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu since 2016. Professor Prema
specializes in International Law, Constitutional Law and IPR with seven years of teaching
experience. She is a Member of Indian Society of International Law and Asian Society of
International Law and participated in the WIPO International Conference on IP Dispute
Resolution in Life Sciences, Bonn University in 2016. Professor Prema presented a paper
at Salzburg Conference in the Interdisciplinary Poverty Research held in September 2018,
Salzburg University, Austria. She gave a poster presentation titled “Space Activities and
Protection of the Outer Space Environment: Balancing Exploration and Exploitation of
Outer Space” at the Vienna-Word Space Forum by UNOOSA, held at Vienna, Austria in
November 2019. In 2020, VIT Chennai, acknowledged her research capabilities and
awarded a cash prize and a research award.
Jacob H. Rooksby
Jacob H. Rooksby is proud to be an academic, administrator, and attorney. Appointed
Dean of Gonzaga Law School in 2018, Rooksby’s focus at Gonzaga has been on innovating
the law school’s programming, facility, and operations and integrating the school further
with the broader university and regional communities. He holds a joint appointment as a
Professor of Law and Leadership Studies and has taught five different courses throughout
his deanship. Rooksby’s scholarship lies in two fields: IP law and higher education law. He
published a book with Johns Hopkins University Press in 2016, The Branding of the
American Mind: How Universities Capture, Manage, and Monetize Intellectual Property and
Why It Matters. He also is co-author of the 6th edition of The Law of Higher Education, the
leading treatise in the field. His edited book at the intersection of IP and higher
education, Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer, was
published by Edward Elgar in 2020.
Faiza Semai
Faia Semai is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology and Abdelhamid Mehri
Constantine 2 University in Algeria. She has a Bachelors degree in Speech Therapy and a
Masters degree and Ph.D. in Neuropsychology from Algiers University. She is a founding
member of the Education and Social Life Research Laboratory at Constantine 2 University.
She has participated in several conferences and seminars discussing the impact of
everyday life on cognitive functioning, especially in childhood. Professor Faiza is
interested in child wellbeing and healthy growth and development. She is committed to
make a more direct and positive impact in children's life.
Drew Simshaw
Before joining the Gonzaga Law faculty, Professor Simshaw taught at the Georgetown
University Law Center as a Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Legal Practice. As a
supervising attorney with the Institute for Public Representation in Washington, D.C., he
specialized in communications and technology law and represented public interest
organizations in rulemakings and adjudications before federal agencies and in litigation
before federal appellate courts. In 2017, he received the H. Latham Breunig Humanitarian
Award from Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc., in recognition of
his pro bono advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities. Professor Simshaw researches
and writes about the interplay between emerging legal technologies (including artificial
intelligence) and legal ethics, access to justice, and legal education. His article, Ethical
Issues in Robo-Lawyering: The Need for Guidance on Developing and Using Artificial
Intelligence in the Practice of Law, was recently published in the Hasting Law Journal.
Shyam Sundar
Dr. V Shyam Sundar was practicing as an Advocate for 15 years and is presently serving
as Assistant Professor (Law) from the year 2019 in Chennai Dr. Ambedkar Government
Law College, Pudupakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His specialization is International Law
and Constitutional Law. He joined as a full-time Research Scholar in the Department of
Legal Studies, University of Madras in the year 2016, completed his Ph.D., in the year
2020, and was awarded his Ph.D. in Estate Laws. He presented a paper at the 2018
Salzburg Conference in the Interdisciplinary Poverty Research held on 13th and 14th
September 2018, organized by Salzburg University, Austria. He has published several
articles in both national and International Journals like Construction law Journal by Sweet
and Maxwell. He has organized various National and International Conferences in the
present institution. He recently co-authored an article on Space Exploration and published
in the Journal of CUEA (Catholic University of Eastern Africa) Journal of Contemporary
Law, 2021.
Igor Vuletic
Igor Vuletić graduated law at the Faculty of Law Osijek in 2006. He defended his Ph.D.
thesis at the Faculty of Law Zagreb (University of Zagreb, Croatia) in 2011. He also passed
the Croatian Bar exam cum laude. He was awarded with several fellowships to preform
research at prominent scientific institutions in the world (Germany, Italy, Great Britain,
United States). He is employed at the Faculty of Law Osijek (Department of Criminal
Sciences) since 2006, currently as an associate professor. Between 2014 and 2017 he was
vice- dean for education and students. Since 2020 he is the head of the Department of
Criminal Law. He teaches substantive criminal law, international criminal law and
criminology at graduate and post- graduate level. As a national expert, he was a member
of an expert group hired by UNODC to draft handbooks for judges on several occasions.
