Silvia Martinelli – författare

This volume examines the evolving EU regulatory frameworks governing product liability, with particular emphasis on digital platforms, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI). Smart products, namely devices integrating connectivity, software, and automated decision-making, pose significant challenges for existing liability regimes, as they entail complex interactions between hardware, software, and advanced technologies, including AI systems. These developments necessitate the coordination of regulatory frameworks, including product safety, product liability, data protection law, consumer protection law, as well as platform and AI governance, capable of addressing such complexity, while ensuring the effective compensation of consumers for harm caused by defective products. A central focus of the volume is the revised Product Liability Directive (PLD 2024), which seeks to modernise the EU liability regime in order to respond to the challenges posed by smart products and re-lated technological advancements. The volume is structured into three parts. Part I, Product Liability: Legal Foundations, Developments, and Digital Services, analyses the doctrinal underpinnings and legal evolution of EU product liability. Part II explores the intersection between IoT, by-design regulatory approaches, and AI. Part III addresses cybersecurity in its relation to product liability. The contributors combined legal analysis by examining case law, regulatory implementation, and technological standards and practices, in a comparative perspective, evaluating approaches across jurisdictions to identify gaps, inconsistencies, but also best practices and potential improvements for the EU framework. Additionally, it integrates perspectives from EU and comparative law and policy, with technological aspects, including, for example, AI sciences and cybersecurity.

This book provides a state-of-the art picture of the transformation of the global legal market. The traditional business model of law firms has been upended by new forms of organisation, often (but not exclusively) brought about by technological innovation and the use of technology for the execution of legal activities, which implies the so-called 'servitisation' of the legal market. Such trends raise a broad range of questions of both practical and academic nature, which the book tackles extensively, relying on the competence of a remarkable group of experts, coming from different professional backgrounds and knowledgeable of many different jurisdictions, from Europe to the USA, from Asia to Australia. In particular, the book has three main focuses: 1) a law and economics analysis of today's legal market, combined with a description of how regulatory changes have had an impact on competition in the legal services business, and on the evolution of this industry; 2) a thorough investigation of the impact of technological disruptions on the legal services industry, considering how legal tech companies and artificial intelligence solutions are reshaping the activities of legal professionals and the legal market more broadly; 3) a survey of the new lawyers and other new legal professionals, along with a reflection on the reforms needed to align their education with market needs.The book caters to all those interested, professionally or academically, in keeping track of the evolution of the legal services market. Practising lawyers who want to be future-proof , law students, new specialised legal professionals active in the business and financial sectors, scholars and other researchers (both lawyers and economists) conducting research in the field, as well as anyone engaged in providing legal education, will find in this book extremely valuable insights on current trends and future developments in the legal market.

This book provides a state-of-the art picture of the transformation of the global legal market.The traditional business model of law firms has been upended by new forms of organisation, often (but not exclusively) brought about by technological innovation and the use of technology for the execution of legal activities, which implies the so-called ‘servitisation’ of the legal market. Such trends raise a broad range of questions of both practical and academic nature, which the book tackles extensively, relying on the competence of a remarkable group of experts, coming from different professional backgrounds and knowledgeable of many different jurisdictions, from Europe to the USA, from Asia to Australia.In particular, the book has three main focuses: 1) a law and economics analysis of today’s legal market, combined with a description of how regulatory changes have had an impact on competition in the legal services business, and on the evolution of this industry; 2) a thorough investigation of the impact of technological disruptions on the legal services industry, considering how legal tech companies and artificial intelligence solutions are reshaping the activities of legal professionals and the legal market more broadly; 3) a survey of the “new lawyers” and other new legal professionals, along with a reflection on the reforms needed to align their education with market needs.The book caters to all those interested, professionally or academically, in keeping track of the evolution of the legal services market. Practising lawyers who want to be “future-proof”, law students, new specialised legal professionals active in the business and financial sectors, scholars and other researchers (both lawyers and economists) conducting research in the field, as well as anyone engaged in providing legal education, will find in this book extremely valuable insights on current trends and future developments in the legal market.