Abstract
The SLOTS project addresses the emerging challenge of transforming legal systems into machine-readable formats, as promoted by recent “Rules as Code” approaches, which risk oversimplifying legal interpretation and weakening foundational legal principles. Moving beyond the limitations of the Rules as Code paradigm promoted by Common law countries, and taking inspiration from the Digital-Ready Policymaking of the EU Commission, it proposes a theoretically grounded framework that integrates constitutional law, philosophy of law, legal informatics, and advanced computational technologies, including artificial intelligence, to ensure that digital, machine-executable law remains transparent, interpretable, explainable, and compliant with democratic and rule-of-law principles. The project involves four research units based at the following institutions: the University of Bologna (UNIBO), the LUISS Guido Carli University (LUISS), the University of Verona (UNIVR), and the University of Turin (UNITO). The following research questions has been investigated. * Analyse post-reductionism/textualism/normativism of philosophy of law in infosphere RQ1: can we produce a solid theory of law that allows to produce legal sources and legal normative propositions in machine-consumable format valid, authentic, equally expressive and persistent over time with the same pre-eminence of textual linguistic acts? And under which theoretical principles and conditions is this possible, including the consolidation versions generated by the diachronic legal system (e.g. retroactive, suspensions, derogation, annulment)? RQ2: can we mitigate the reductionism that the logic formula serialization of the legal norms can produce in order to preserve the flexibility of the different ontological signifieds in a diachronic process? *Include Legal Hermeneutic in eLegislation: RQ3: how can we produce a computer science framework (set of technical requirements) that includes also the legal hermeneutic principles in the formalization under programming (or logic or standard) of the Law? RQ4: how can we make eLegal Systems dynamic over time and continuously using interactive dialogue with the context of the user (e.g. dynamic normative references over the time, link to correct legal concepts over time)? * Define Constitutional compatibility of the computable legal sources and their e-enforceability RQ5: what are the constitutional and parliamentary foundations that make a machine-consumable approach in law-making system legally sustainable? RQ6: what enforceability principles are necessary to make machine-consumable law automatically effective (e-enforceability)? * Implement Better Regulation with Legal Design RQ7: which foundations of philosophy of law and semiotics are necessary to preserve the ontological meaning of a legal norm when it is translated in visual symbols? RQ8: which Legal Design/HCI methods should we develop to make the law “better” and “simple” while at the same time not losing in semantic and in expressivity? The University of Bologna research unit focused its main efforts on developing hybrid AI methodologies and practical tools for parliamentary processes, including AI-assisted drafting of legal definitions, normative reference suggestion, bill similarity clustering, and constitutional compliance checks for proposed laws. Particular emphasis was placed on leveraging Akoma Ntoso XML standards, semantic embeddings, and explainable AI to enhance legislative efficiency while upholding legal integrity, temporal validity, and rule-of-law principles. The UNIVR research unit successfully achieved its objectives by developing computational models and tools for representing and implementing legal norms in digital environments, with a focus on AI and logic-based approaches. It also contributed to the design of transparent and explainable solutions for machine-consumable law, producing prototypes and scientific outputs in line with the project goals. The UNITO research unit undertook as its main task the elaboration of a theoretical reference framework of a legal-philosophical nature concerning the relationship between law and emerging technologies. Particular attention was devoted to the processes of legal automation and to the epistemological and normative implications of generative artificial intelligence systems and models. The activities of the Turin unit contributed directly to the project’s ambition to support law-making processes through computational methods while ensuring that digital legal sources remain authoritative, legitimate, accessible, and aligned with the rule of law and fundamental rights The LUISS University examined how digitalisation and automation are reshaping the distribution of power among public institutions, particularly the relationship between Parliament, the Government, and technical-administrative bodies. It found that while digital tools and AI can strengthen Parliament’s institutional and informational capacity, they also expand the influence of executive-linked technical bodies and AI governance structures, potentially altering traditional constitutional and institutional balances. This research examined whether AI systems can be trained to understand not only legal texts and decisions but also the underlying logic of legal reasoning, including principles, analogies, and interpretive methods, to support more transparent and coherent law-making. It also explored practical applications of AI for legislative drafting and legal systematisation, including a collaboration with Asimov AI to assess and develop AI tools for legislative processes. Results The project has produced 31 papers, 4 books, 2 workshops inside of the ICON-S conference 2024 and 2025, 7 seminars and conferences events, 2 prototypes (GENAI4LEX-B and HOUDINI), one Hackathon on “Legal Design, LLM, XAI, Human Rights”. Books 1. Durante, M. and Pagallo, U. (eds.), The De Gruyter Handbook on Law and Digital Technologies (De Gruyter, 2025)- UNITO 2. Paseri, L., Scienza aperta. Politiche europee per un nuovo paradigma della ricerca, Mimesis Editore, 2024 - UNITO 3. Paseri, L., Il governo dei dati. Interesse pubblico, altruismo e partecipazione, Giappichelli, 2025 - UNITO 4. Palmirani M. (a cura di), Intelligenza Artificiale e Parlamenti, Giuffrè, in the series of Informatica Giuridica (2026) – under publication. Prototypes UNIBO developed a hybrid AI methodology (HAIMLA) integrating symbolic modeling (Akoma Ntoso XML, semantic annotation), non-symbolic ML, and rigorous juridical validation, ensuring explainability (XAI), data sovereignty, and human oversight to prevent expert judgment override. UNIBO also developed several datasets of Akoma Ntoso XML of Normattiva, EURLEX, the Constitutional Court, bill of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy. A complex prototype called GENAI4LEX-B has been designed and developed using HAIMLA to support the expert online search of heterogeneous documents, making qualified queries about legal definitions, normative references, topics, and similarity between case law of the Constitutional Court. In the aim at achieving the aforementioned goals, the UNIVR developed a model of simulation employed for the mentioned digital environment definition purposes. The implemented system in GAMA, along with HOUDINI, two technologies for, respectively, simulation of societies and checking of legal compliance, are adapted to the principle of general understanding of the law in the constituencies, so far impeded by the complexity of legal language and difficulties in understanding it by the general public, especially the new generations. Award The Chamber of Deputies of Italy has awarded the consortium in light of the Manifestazione di interessi per l’intelligenza artificiale a sostegno delle attività dei lavori parlamentari. Cooperation with spin-off The consortium SLOTS has cooperated with two university spin-offs: BitNomos from UNIBO and ASIMOV AI from LUISS. This cooperation was a fundamental pillar in the strategy to create a knowledge transfer from the research to the market and vice versa to take inspiration from several use cases in order to evaluate the impact on the rule of law, the theory of law, the constitutional framework, and the parliamentary procedures. Summer Schools Two summer schools have been organised in 2024 and 2025 a.a.:i) Summer School LegalXML Standards, Legal Analytics and AI (UNIBO); ii) Summer School AI and Parliaments Challenges in Representation, Law-Making and Administrative Support (LUISS). Final conference A final conference has been held on 23 January with the participation of institutions, scholars, public administrations and it was introduced by a lecture magistralis from vice president of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy Ho. Anna Ascani.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Monica Palmirani
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche
Coordinatore:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Contributo totale di progetto: Euro (EUR) 224.939,00
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 87.160,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
28/09/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
