Artificial Autonomous Agents and the Question of Electronic Personhood: A Path Between Subjectivity and Liability

Technological acceleration has led to the creation of innovative electronic autonomous agents. Considering this phenomenon from a legal point of view, the gradual introduction of such agents into daily relationships stresses both the categories of legal subjectivity and legal liability. Starting with a terminology toolbox, then this paper will investigate the impact of those agents on the legal order, especially regarding civil liability. To manage this 'dilemma' (liability), some have proposed giving artificial autonomous agents legal personality. By adopting an historical approach to legal subjectivity and personality, this paper tries to shed light on the reciprocal interdependency between the diverse criteria used by the law to attribute liability and the diverse legal persons to which such liability is assigned. The study of the positioning of non-human entities into this legal framework represents an key step in the process of regulating an issue which, at the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is now a contingent reality.