Tuning EU equality law to algorithmic discrimination:Three pathways to resilience

First published online: 4 January 2021Algorithmic discrimination poses an increased risk to the legal principle of equality. Scholarly accounts of this challenge are emerging in the context of EU equality law, but the question of the resilience of the legal framework has not yet been addressed in depth. Exploring three central incompatibilities between the conceptual map of EU equality law and algorithmic discrimination, this article investigates how purposively revisiting selected conceptual and doctrinal tenets of EU nondiscrimination law offers pathways towards enhancing its effectiveness and resilience. First, I argue that predictive analytics are likely to give rise to intersectional forms of discrimination, which challenge the unidimensional understanding of discrimination prevalent in EU law. Second, I show how proxy discrimination in the context of machine learning questions the grammar of EU nondiscrimination law. Finally, I address the risk that new patterns of systemic discrimination emerge in the algorithmic society. Throughout the article, I show that looking at the margins of the conceptual and doctrinal map of EU equality law offers several pathways to tackling algorithmic discrimination. This exercise is particularly important with a view to securing a technology-neutral legal framework robust enough to provide an effective remedy to algorithmic threats to fundamental rights.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 898937

Multiple discrimination in EU anti-discrimination law:Towards redressing complex inequality?

In the past years, discussions about equality law in the EU have witnessed the emergence of growing concerns about ‘intersectionality’. In cases of multiple and intersectional discrimination, victims experience differential treatment or disadvantage based on several grounds, for instance gender and race. This type of complex and multi-layered discrimination poses specific challenges to EU anti-discrimination law, which systematically tends to reduce discrimination to one single protected category. Consequently, multiple and intersectional discrimination often falls into the cracks of equality protection, raising the question of whether EU anti-discrimination law is an adequate instrument to combat intersectional discrimination. Despite rising awareness about the necessity to address this issue, neither EU legislation nor jurisprudence has provided an adequate answer so far. Rather, the warning against ‘multiple discrimination’ contained in the preambles of the Race Equality Directive 2000/43/EC (14) and the Framework Directive 2000/78/EC (3) falls short of bringing conceptual clarity. However, despite the Court’s apparent lack of understanding of the issue of intersectionality—culminating in Parris in 2016 – this chapter argues that a careful reading of the few cases of discrimination invoking multiple grounds brought to the CJEU reveals potential paths towards recognizing intersectional discrimination. This chapter reviews these pathways to recognition and demonstrates how they could contribute to a better protection of equality for victims of multiple and intersectional discrimination

Game Theory-Based Minimization of the Ostracism Risk in Construction Companies

Strategic and managerial decision-making in an organization can have a crucial effect for the whole entity; however, it rarely involves the organization’s employees evenly at the different organizational levels. The result is—what is addressed in this paper as—the ostracism risk, namely the risk accruing from the lack of satisfaction of underprivileged employees’ groups during the decision-making process. The ostracism risk could jeopardize the organization’s integrity and therefore requires effective treatment. This paper aims at verifying a conceptual approach, which is proposed as a methodology for assessing the probability of organizational cooperation when deciding under risk, thus minimizing ostracism risk. The proposed approach is based on organizational and human resources management (HRM) theories and is contextualized for construction through the understanding of systems theory. The proposed methodology presents a potential modelling via game theory of a medium-sized construction company that is organized according to Mintzberg’s organizational model. The utilization of the bounded Pareto distribution is presented as an approach of the model’s probabilistic processing, and the potential for estimating the probabilities to adopt a favorable cooperational decision is verified. The paper concludes with the reference to the next steps required for the methodology’s validation and further improvement

Algorithmic Discrimination in Europe:Challenges and Opportunities for Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination Law

This report investigates how algorithmic discrimination challenges the set of legal guarantees put in place in Europe to combat discrimination and ensure equal treatment. More specifically, it examines whether and how the current gender equality and non-discrimination legislative framework in place in the EU can adequately capture and redress algorithmic discrimination. It explores the gaps and weaknesses that emerge at both the EU and national levels from the interaction between, on the one hand, the specific types of discrimination that arise when algorithms are used in decision-making systems and, on the other, the particular material and personal scope of the existing legislative framework. This report also maps out the existing legal solutions, accompanying policy measures and good practice to address and redress algorithmic discrimination both at EU and national levels. Moreover, this report proposes its own integrated set of legal, knowledge-based and technological solutions to the problem of algorithmic discrimination

Megaproject development in the context of sustainable urban regeneration

Megaprojects are large-scale ventures of inherent great complexity; they last long, cost much, and affect the lives of a significant number of people. A common type of megaprojects that aspire to (re)form the so-called “cities of tomorrow” is the urban megaprojects, i.e., megaprojects including all types of infrastructure involved for a holistic intervention in the city’s environment. The decision to initiate and develop such projects, though, is a very hard task that requires the inclusion of a broad agenda of issues to be taken into consideration, such as: a) scarcity of required resources, b) assessment of the project’s decisive impact on the structure of urban functions and city planning, c) alignment with the principles of urban sustainability, etc. This paper reviews the interface between urban megaprojects and urban sustainability taking into consideration the emergence of smart cities. Through synthesis and comparative analysis of these concepts, the paper explores their compatibility and the extent to which they can be integrated, in order to promote the growing needs of contemporary cities in a manner that reduces resource waste, environmental pollution and the creation of social inequalities. Some examples of case studies around the world are used to lighten the associated challenges to megaprojects in the urban environment context. Based on the above analysis, the paper provides an analytical overview of crucial aspects, such as the early stakeholder engagement, the adoption of a problem-solving oriented strategy, and useful recommendations for future policy makers

Comunidades rurales de la región mediterránea en 2030: proyecciones y escenarios futuros. Cambio climático y cambio social

Este artículo es el resultado del trabajo realizado en el Seminario de Orientación Ecológica que cada año celebra el Instituto de Ecología Social de Viena (IFF). Con el tema "Cambio Climático y Cambio Social" como guía, los participantes fueron animados a recrear escenarios futuros en los que el cambio climático fuese ya una realidad. En nuestro caso elegimos una comunidad rural en la zona mediterránea. Contando con las consecuencias del cambio climático, nos interesaba comparar dos escenarios contrapuestos, dependiendo de las decisiones sociales, económicas, culturales y políticas realizadas por la sociedad. Decisiones tomadas hoy y que pueden afectar seriamente nuestro futuro.This article is the result of a work carried out during the Seminar of Ecological Orientation that the Institute of Social Ecology of Viena (IFF) prepares every year. Under the topic "Climate Change and Social Change", the participants were motivated to recreate future scenarios where the climate change would be a reality. Our choice was a rural community in the Mediterranean region. Taking into account the consequences of the Climate Change, we were interested in comparing two different scenarios, depending on the social, economic, cultural and political decisions made by the society. Decisions that we make today and can seriously affect our future.peerReviewe

EU non-discrimination law in the era of artificial intelligence : mapping the challenges of algorithmic discrimination

While most studies on the topic of AI, algorithms and bias have been conducted from the point of view of ‘fairness’ in the field of information technologies and computer science, this chapter explores the question of algorithmic discrimination – a category that does not neatly overlap with algorithmic bias – from the specific perspective of non-discrimination law. In particular and by contrast to the majority of current research on the question of algorithms and discrimination, which focuses on the United States context, this chapter takes EU non-discrimination law as its object of enquiry. We pose the question of the resilience of the general principle of non-discrimination, that is, the capacity for EU equality law to respond effectively to the specific challenges posed by algorithmic discrimination. Because EU law represents an overarching framework and sets minimum safeguards for the protection against discrimination at national level in EU Member States, it is important to test out the protection against the risks posed by the pervasive and increasing use of AI techniques in everyday life applications which this framework allows for. This chapter therefore maps the challenges arising from artificial intelligence for equality and non-discrimination, which are both a general principle and a fundamental right in EU law. First, we identify the specific risks of discrimination that AI-based decision-making, and in particular machine-learning algorithms, pose. Second, we review how EU non-discrimination law can capture algorithmic discrimination in terms of its substantive scope. Third, we conduct this review from a conceptual perspective, mapping the friction points that emerge from the perspective of the EU concepts of direct and indirect discrimination, as developed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In the final step, we identify the core challenges algorithmic discrimination poses at the enforcement level and propose potential ways forward

The RISCONA system: constructability appraisal through the identification and assessment of technical project risks sources

In construction management, constructability and risk analysis have never been methodologically and computationally integrated, leading to non-optimal construction knowledge implementation, stakeholders’ cooperation, choice of construction method, and risk-driven perception of key managerial concepts. In this paper, a methodology unifying constructability and risk analysis is delineated, where: (1) risk sources are derived with unsupervised machine learning, (2) actual projects’ data are collected and suitably correlated with the derived risk sources, and (3) the appraisal of constructability through the data-correlated risk sources is modelled with supervised machine learning. As the culmination of this modelling, the prototype software application RISCONA (RIsk Source-based CONstructability Appraisal) is presented, as a tool that can help construction managers in their decision-making regarding constructability and risk analysis

Project performance appraisal frameworks as blueprints for bridge quality control

Various project performance appraisal frameworks (PPAFs) have been established in practice for engineering projects of both the public and private sector. Their aim is to measure the targeted and tangential attributes of project performance and conformance to specified quality standards. In this paper, the following PPAFs are summarily presented: CONQUAS and BDAS of Singapore, PASS and BAM of Hong Kong and SBTool of Portugal, Spain and Italy. Then, the current state of research regarding the key bridge performance indicators (KBPIs) is noted and considerations regarding the possible adaptation of a PPAF-inspired blueprint for a general quality appraising framework for roadway bridges take place. Concluding, the importance of lessons learned and best practices in the establishment of a novel conceptual and computational framework is discussed