[The guidelines in the new law reforming the medical liability]The increasing complexity of clinical practice has significantly strengthened the need for guidelines that provide physicians with clear professional standards for inspiration and, not infrequently, cling to withstand the wind of a sometimes excessive responsibility of their activities. Clinical guidelines are defined as «systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances».The fact that the guidelines indicate the rules of proper practice of the profession has led many doctors to hope that, according to them, they could avoid incurring liability. The doctrine has long held that the rules contained in the guidelines can have an abstract value, but the assessment of the behaviour of the physician must be conducted in the light of all the data of the individual and concrete clinical cases, which certainly can not be taken into consideration by the drafters of the guidelines. Although the medical-legal relevance of the guidelines was reduced by the Supreme Court in some cases, the legislature has decided to focus on guidelines to curb the phenomenon of defensive medicine and restoring tranquility to the doctors in the exercise of profession.Purpose of our article is to present a commentary on Article 3 of Decree Law no. 158/2012 (so-called "Decreto Balduzzi"), to highlight some critical points that are likely to frustrate the objective of the legislature.
This thesis focuses on the relationship between the development of autonomous artificial intelligence systems ("AI systems") and criminal law. In particular, it deals with the following question: do the laws governing product liability adequately address the criminal liability issues of AI systems? Non-human agents, including robotics and software agents, and especially those using advanced artificial intelligence, are becoming increasingly autonomous in terms of the complexity of tasks they can perform, their potential casual impacts on the world that are unmitigated by human agents, and the diminishing ability of human agents to understand, predict or control how they operate. From a legal perspective, one of the main problems facing this technology development is the uncertain status of liability for the effects caused by artificial agents. In some cases, AI systems are capable of operating not only without the supervision of a human agent, but also without an entirely defined operational modus. As a matter of facts, robots can be programmed to be independent, to "learn" from the environment and to experiment new strategies that cannot be predicted in advance. The problem involves legal as well as philosophical implications. On 16 February 2017, the European Parliament has adopted a Resolution with recommendations to the Commission on Civil Law Rules on Robotics, soliciting to reflect – in relation to autonomous robots – "whether the ordinary rules on liability are sufficient or whether it calls for new principles and rules to provide clarity on the legal liability of various actors concerning responsibility for the acts and omissions of robots". The civil law has already started dealing with this problem, but the discussion is still at the beginning in the criminal law field. If an intelligent agent causes harms to individuals or property (e.g. killing or injuring a person, or destroying an asset), who should be held criminally responsible? The manufacturer, the owner or the AI system itself? The elaborate addresses the issue from the perspective of criminal liability of the manufacturer of artificial intelligence systems, through the enhancement of the traditional category of "allowed risk". The development of the theme is accompanied by examples taken from the recent diffusion of self-driving vehicles, in order to help the reader to better understand the practical implications of AI systems.
Tort liability for environmental damages and historical pollution The work explores the issue of tort liability for environmental damages, with specific reference to the cases of liability for the so called "historical" pollution, where such term indicates events of long standing environmental deterioration. The starting point is the analysis of a lawsuit decided by the Court of Milan in 2012, relating to damages, either or not of environmental kind, claimed by certain government authorities against the last owner of an industrial site for the production of chemical products. Such industrial site had remained active over the entire twentieth century under the ownership and management of different entities who contributed, to different extent, to the whole status of environmental deterioration identified on the spot. Moving from the case at stake, the work recalls the laws governing the compensation of environmental damages under the Italian legal system, from law 349/86 until the so called Environmental Code (legislative decree 152/06), and the EU legal system, in such last respect with specific reference to EU Directive 2004/35/CE. The analysis of the case has guided the verification, in the application stage, of the solutions created by scholars and case law, and the debate on the different functions that the institute of tort liability holds in respect of the issue of environmental damage. A particular attention has been reserved, on the basis of the scholars' and case law's arguments developed over the years, to crucial issues in the scholars' debate: the legal notion of environment and environmental damage, the question of identifying the persons liable, the role of the cause-to-effect relation, the criteria for allocating the liability, the relationship between the regulation governing the environmental damage and the one governing the recovery, the methods of compensation.
[Law is jurisprudence: "there is no certainty of tomorrow". Comment to: judgment of the Court of Milan, July 17th 2014]Today, more and more evidence is perfected a peculiar creation process of law: law is jurisprudence!The judgment of the Court of Milan, here under review, sets out a direction completely contrasting with the well-established theory of liability of "social contact" in the health sector.The point at issue? The same for some time, now: the Decree Balduzzi revived the responsibility model in force before the landmark ruling in 1999, or only represented a failure of the Legislator?The jurisprudential debate arises from the interpretation of Article 3 of Law 189 of November 8, 2012, the conversion of D.L. September 13, 2012 n. 158, the notorius "Decree Balduzzi".The Court of Milan promotes the interpretation that the second part of Article 3 of Law n. 189/2012, would change the "living law", making a choice in line with the purpose of containing the costs of compensation of public health and to remedy the phenomenon of so-called "defensive medicine", "throwing to the nettles" the usability in practice of the theory of social contact.The position taken by the Court of Milan cannot be shared: the reference to art. 2043 of the Civil Code must be interpreted as a failure of the Legislator, too worried about reducing health care costs. We must therefore continue to apply the model of liability of art. 1218 of the Civil Code, and then the theory of social contact. Anyway: posterity will judge!
Telemedicine is the use of information and telecommunications technology to provide, support and supplement traditional health care services at a distance, thus overcome the presence of physical, geographical, social and cultural barriers, and ensure effective and equitable availability of access to healthcare. However, in spite of the opportunities granted by the Telemedicine, its spread in the country is still affected by the presence of medico-legal problems.Teleradiology, the sector with the most large application e-Health service, uses integrated systems capable of transferring multimedia remote radiographs, ultrasound and computerized axial tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, for their interpretation, to ask for a second opinion in particularly complex cases, for a collegial review of a case and, finally, for a diagnosis in cases of emergency.In 2013, doctors and medical technicians of Radiology, working in two hospitals posted of AUSL 2 Lucca ("Marlia" and "S. Francesco di Barga"), were indicted for the crime of the unauthorised practice of the medical profession and for the violation of legal obligations relating to radiation protection. During the trials it was found that in the two hospitals were provided, after prescription, radiological basic building blocks, and the images were interpreted by a radiologist not present in the place, but using computer technology (RIS-PACS System).Criminal trials under review, in which all defendants were acquitted as requested by the prosecution, suggest that if the evidence and the law had been further enhanced, already under preliminary investigation, criminal prosecution would not have even started.In addition, the changes introduced by the Telemedicine services – among them the reorganization of the mode of service delivery, and the revolution of the doctor-patient relationship – impose a reflection on how to evaluate the responsibility of the professionals involved.
Defence date: 31 January 2005 ; Examining Board: Prof. Pierre-Marie Dupuy (Istituto universitario europeo) ; Prof.ssa Geneviève Bastid-Burdeau (Université de Paris I) ; Prof. Francesco Francioni (Istituto universitario europeo) ; Prof. Giorgio Sacerdoti (Università Bocconi) ; First made available online on 24 May 2016
The author investigates the transnational application of corporate liability law (decreto legislativo 08.06.2001, n. 231) in the light of the fundamental transformations that globalization has caused. The domestic question about liability of foreign corporations is thus analyzed considering the current trends of globalization: the disaggregation of sovereignty and territory; the "space revolution" and the evolution of territoriality in a regulatory sense; the creation of functional or post-geographic forms of jurisdiction, through which national states regulate cross-border business activity; the role that courts and judges play in this context as border guards. According to the author, the activity of multinational corporations rep- resents the most significant ground for observing the developments of regulatory models ("regulatory capitalism"). At the same time, in this context, arises a new "transnational", "hybrid", "polycontextural "," global " law. Finally, the author criticizes the extraterritorial scope of corporate liability system, suggest- ing certain amendments in order to make domestic law compliant with non-interference principle and consistent with the "inter-legal" dimension which connotes the regulation of transnational economic activity.
The subject matter of this dissertation is the analysis of the regulation of pre-contractual liability, as interpreted and constructed by the case-law and scholars, under a comparative perspective and with a specific focus on m&a transactions. I will specifically consider the Italian, American and English law systems. The choice of the foregoing specific topic stems from the following considerations: (i) first and foremost, the increasing importance of the role played by the negotiation phase, both in general, and with specific reference to the arm's length transactions in the business field. The entering into a contract (by means of the mechanism of offer and acceptance) is increasingly rare, and is totally absent in the m&a sector, characterized by lengthy and complex negotiations. In this setting, the legal regulation of the pre-contractual stage is of paramount importance; (ii) secondly, the differences, both of the rules, and generally speaking of the approach, existing between civil law and common law systems with reference to negotiations. Two articles of the Italian civil code specifically address negotiations, and both doctrine and case-law on the matter are wide-ranging. Of paramount importance is the issue of unjustified withdrawal, which for long time has corresponded to the main case of pre-contractual liability. Scholars and case-law have subsequently developed other issues: duty of information, indemnifiable damages, parallel negotiations etc. The nature of pre-contractual liability has created a huge dispute, not yet resolved. The first part of the first chapter deals with the main features of pre-contractual liability under Italian law. The second part, instead, analyses the regulation of negotiations in the m&a sector. Here, negotiations have particular relevance, in consideration of their lengthy and complex nature. The concepts related to pre-contractual liability, examined in the first part, will be therefore scrutinized in this specific sector. Of particular importance are those pre-contractual documents, that market practice has developed, such as letters of intent, confidentiality agreement and lock-out agreements. At the end of the chapter we will investigate a recent case ruled by the Court of Milan, which will let us walk through the topics scrutinized, and see how they have been interpreted by the judges. With the second chapter we enter into the common law system. The first part deals with the analysis of the American law system. In order to understand the differences with our regulation, we will start from the definition of contract. Going through the concepts of freedom to contract, all or nothing approach etc. we will better understand the reasons of such different approaches, and why negotiations are not specifically addressed by official legislation we will then turn our attention to the several tools developed by practitioners, with a specific focus on m&a sector again, in order to see how the legislative vacuum has been filled by prelaminar agreements of various denominations. The analysis of the case-law, which adopted different approaches, and of the doctrine, more available to rethink the current regulation of precontractual liability, and open to changes also in a future perspective, results particularly interesting. The chapter closes with the analysis of the English law system, which results to be the stricter one with reference to the possibility to recognize any precontractual liability. We will again start from the concept of contract, to underline how the historical – cultural differences affect the modern approach on the matter. Starting from the leading case Walford v Miles, we will see how, similarly to the American law system, has been developed piecemeal solutions, that is, specific and fragmentary (misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, promissory estoppel etc.). This is consistent with the traditional remedial common law approach, developed in a preponderant way thanks to judges' work. A remedial law, by virtue of things, can hardly address in an organic way an institution, being more available to develop fragmented solutions. The concept of good faith, therefore, has not been particular diffusion. Also in the company law field, we still can see some reluctance in recognizing any effect to those precontractual documents which should regulate the parties involved in negotiations. Finally, in the third chapter, after referring to the theories developed by the economic analysis of law, as well as by decision analysis and game theory, we will try to identify which of the possible solutions available, results to be the most efficient one, incentivizing reliance and ensuring optimal investments in the negotiation phase. The work ends with the conclusions of the author.
Il lavoro prende in considerazione i diversi aspetti della responsabilità penale di gruppo mettendo a confronto il diritto romano e gli ordinamenti germanici dell'Alto Medioevo, con particolare attenzione alle formazioni militari e al fenomeno della compartecipazione nel reato di banda armata. Approfondendo la natura e la funzione delle formazioni di armati nell'ambito delle società altomedievali, si dà conto che il regime della pena per gli associati che, nel diritto romano, si appoggia alle regole della cumulatività della sanzione nell'illecito, tende a variare nelle fonti altomedievali, nelle quali tende a declinarsi in ragione di una graduazione della stessa a seconda del ruolo svolto dal singolo nella consumazione del delitto. ; The paper examines the different features of group criminal liability in Roman law and Germanic legal systems of the early Middle Ages. Attention is paid to military bands and participation in the armed bands as a criminal offence. The punishment for participants is investigated through the lenses of the nature and function of armed bands in early medieval societies. In particular, it is shown that while in Roman law cumulative punishment was preferred, in early medieval sources the degree of liability was evaluated in accordance with the role played by the individual in the relevant criminal activity.
Il presente contributo intende offrire al lettore i primi risultati dell'indagine giuridica condotta nell'ambito del progetto dell'Ateneo di Trento "Drones for Finding Avalanche-Buried" (D-FAB). Il progetto, che ha visto la partecipazione di un team interdisciplinare coordinato dal Prof. Paolo Bosetti del Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, si propone l'obiettivo innovativo di costruire un esacottero, con MTOM compreso tra i 2 e i 25 Kg, con un sistema per la navigazione autonoma, che possa affiancarsi alle operazioni di soccorso in caso di valanga: il drone, infatti, sarebbe dotato di un ricevitore ARTVA (Apparecchio di Ricerca dei Travolti in VAlanga) che, unito a sistemi per la mappatura, localizzazione e navigazione, sarebbe in grado di restringere il perimetro della ricerca ed individuare il segnale proveniente dall'apparecchio della vittima, così agevolando l'intervento delle squadre di soccorso e delle unità cinofile. La tecnologia risulterebbe, dunque, di supporto in un contesto particolarmente complesso, nel quale il tempo costituisce un fattore cruciale: la probabilità di estrarre vivo un soggetto travolto da una valanga crolla vertiginosamente dal 92% dei primi 15 minuti fino ad arrivare al 30% trascorsi 35 minuti dall'evento. Dal punto di vista giuridico, l'impiego di un drone per la ricerca e il soccorso in aree valanghive pone una serie di questioni con riferimento ai profili della responsabilità di civile e tutela della privacy, che si vengono a delineare sullo sfondo di un framework normativo, quale quello della regolamentazione dei droni, profondamente dinamico sia a livello internazionale che italiano . Come in molti altri settori tecnologici, infatti, il fenomeno dei droni s'inserisce all'interno di un contesto giuridico che appare inevitabilmente "obsoleto" e che il policy maker fatica ad aggiornare in maniera puntuale. Con l'introduzione di tale nuovo artefatto tecnologico si viene a determinare una situazione ben nota agli studiosi del Law and Technology : per un verso, si cercano di adattare le norme giuridiche esistenti alla nuova tecnologia ove compatibili, per altro, si impone al giurista la necessità di ripensare determinate categorie o meccanismi di protezione a fronte delle nuove esigenze di tutela emergenti. Il tutto è complicato dall'estrema dinamicità del settore che imporrebbe, di contro, la tempestività dell'intervento del regolatore e del legislatore: la mancanza di un contesto giuridico di riferimento omogeneo non solo rischia di essere una pietra d'inciampo per lo sviluppo del settore, ma soprattutto può compromettere la protezione degli interessi fondamentali dei cittadini a fronte di un fenomeno dilagante e sostanzialmente poco regolamentato. Il contributo si divide in due parti: nella prima si procede all'inquadramento della fattispecie di progetto nel contesto delle regole dell'aria, soffermandosi in particolare sui profili di responsabilità anche con riferimento alla protezione dei dati personali. Nella seconda parte, invece, ipotizzando che nel medio-lungo periodo uno strumento come il drone per la ricerca dei travolti in valanga possa diventare un servizio operativo, ci si interroga sull'opportunità di varare apposite misure legislative che possano aumentare il livello di sicurezza dei fruitori della montagna.
Il presente contributo intende offrire al lettore i primi risultati dell'indagine giuridica condotta nell'ambito del progetto dell'Ateneo di Trento "Drones for Finding Avalanche-Buried" (D-FAB). Il progetto, che ha visto la partecipazione di un team interdisciplinare coordinato dal Prof. Paolo Bosetti del Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, si propone l'obiettivo innovativo di costruire un esacottero, con MTOM compreso tra i 2 e i 25 Kg, con un sistema per la navigazione autonoma, che possa affiancarsi alle operazioni di soccorso in caso di valanga: il drone, infatti, sarebbe dotato di un ricevitore ARTVA (Apparecchio di Ricerca dei Travolti in VAlanga) che, unito a sistemi per la mappatura, localizzazione e navigazione, sarebbe in grado di restringere il perimetro della ricerca ed individuare il segnale proveniente dall'apparecchio della vittima, così agevolando l'intervento delle squadre di soccorso e delle unità cinofile. La tecnologia risulterebbe, dunque, di supporto in un contesto particolarmente complesso, nel quale il tempo costituisce un fattore cruciale: la probabilità di estrarre vivo un soggetto travolto da una valanga crolla vertiginosamente dal 92% dei primi 15 minuti fino ad arrivare al 30% trascorsi 35 minuti dall'evento. Dal punto di vista giuridico, l'impiego di un drone per la ricerca e il soccorso in aree valanghive pone una serie di questioni con riferimento ai profili della responsabilità di civile e tutela della privacy, che si vengono a delineare sullo sfondo di un framework normativo, quale quello della regolamentazione dei droni, profondamente dinamico sia a livello internazionale che italiano . Come in molti altri settori tecnologici, infatti, il fenomeno dei droni s'inserisce all'interno di un contesto giuridico che appare inevitabilmente "obsoleto" e che il policy maker fatica ad aggiornare in maniera puntuale. Con l'introduzione di tale nuovo artefatto tecnologico si viene a determinare una situazione ben nota agli studiosi del Law and Technology : per un verso, si cercano di adattare le norme giuridiche esistenti alla nuova tecnologia ove compatibili, per altro, si impone al giurista la necessità di ripensare determinate categorie o meccanismi di protezione a fronte delle nuove esigenze di tutela emergenti. Il tutto è complicato dall'estrema dinamicità del settore che imporrebbe, di contro, la tempestività dell'intervento del regolatore e del legislatore: la mancanza di un contesto giuridico di riferimento omogeneo non solo rischia di essere una pietra d'inciampo per lo sviluppo del settore, ma soprattutto può compromettere la protezione degli interessi fondamentali dei cittadini a fronte di un fenomeno dilagante e sostanzialmente poco regolamentato. Il contributo si divide in due parti: nella prima si procede all'inquadramento della fattispecie di progetto nel contesto delle regole dell'aria, soffermandosi in particolare sui profili di responsabilità anche con riferimento alla protezione dei dati personali. Nella seconda parte, invece, ipotizzando che nel medio-lungo periodo uno strumento come il drone per la ricerca dei travolti in valanga possa diventare un servizio operativo, ci si interroga sull'opportunità di varare apposite misure legislative che possano aumentare il livello di sicurezza dei fruitori della montagna.
[Damage caused by blood transfusion and medical liability]A wide scientific and jurisprudential literature is available on the issue of medical liability for damage by blood transfusion. National laws and jurisprudential guidelines had transposed the scientific development in term of preventive diagnostic techniques designed to minimize the risk of post-transfusion infections. For this reasons the Ministry of Health has issued several decrees to preserve patients from viral post-transfusion infections, avoiding compensation due to unpredictable transfusion damages. Particularly, by implementing all the methods provided by law, it is now possible to minimize the risk of infection, but it is impossible to cancel it. On the other hand, in the "so-called windows period" for viral infections, potential infective donors can't be identified, although the recent molecular technique (PRC: polymerase chain reaction) has been applied for HBV, HCV, and HIV. This technique has been introduced in the nineties but applied only since 2000. Consequently an unappropriated transfusion therapy for wrong indication or a careless collection, analysis, and storage of blood, according to laws since 2000, remain compensable. Post-transfusion infections, which are impossible to identify for the sensitivity limits of analytical methods, are not compensable. Another important issue is the time-barred for the request of the damage: in this case, the prescription term doesn't start since the time of infection, but since the time when the disease was perceived or it could be perceived as a post-transfusion damage. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview on the responsibility and the time-barred of damage caused by blood transfusion.
