The normative order of artificial intelligence | NO:KI

Research network

Project manager: Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard

Project description

Everyone is talking about “artificial intelligence” (AI) these days. And for good reason: AI is the driving force behind the ever-accelerating digital revolution that is affecting all areas of life. The research project “The normative order of artificial intelligence” is building a research network that addresses three sets of questions:

1. “Normative orders in AI?
What are the inherent normative orders of AI applications? Or what should they be?

2. normative reorganizations through AI?
How does AI (or its immanent normative orders) transform our existing normative orders? Or how should the latter be transformed by the former?

3. normative reorganizations of AI?
Can AI be regulated by external normative regulatory postulates – in particular by law? Or how should it be regulated and thus reorganized?


These questions are intertwined. For example, it can be critically observed that AI is neither an independent entity nor rational or objective in itself – contrary to corresponding misrepresentations or simplifications. Rather, it can represent a veritable (political, economic, cultural, etc.) instrument of power with immanent biases (complex of questions “Normative orders in AI?”). These biases can perpetuate existing (e.g. political, economic or social) asymmetries, perpetuate existing discrimination and make the quantification of the social appear to have no alternative. Soshana Zuboff, for example, sees all of this as ushering in the age of surveillance capitalism (question complex “Normative reorganizations through AI?”). In order to counteract this, the basic normative configuration of the corresponding AI applications would have to be changed (set of questions “Normative reorganizations of AI?”).

Events:

Program in the winter semester 2020/21

Lecture series “Shifting power through algorithms and AI”

Program in the winter semester 2019/20

Workshop
May 7 and 8, 2020
First Finnish-German Workshop on Foundational Matters of Criminal Law & Justice

Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Campus Westend
Building Normative Orders, Room 5.01
The event is canceled!

Lecture series “Liability Law and Artificial Intelligence”

Program in the summer semester 2019*


April 16, 2019, 4.15 p.m., 4.101 RuW, Uni Campus Westend

AI as the end of criminal law?
Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard (GU Frankfurt / Normative Orders)

April 30, 2019, 4.15 p.m., 4.101 RuW, Uni Campus Westend
Algorithmic Sentencing
Prof. Vincent Chiao, Ph.D. (University of Toronto)

May 21, 2019, 4.15 p.m., 4.101 RuW, Uni Campus Westend
Digitalization and criminal law – new perspectives
Prof. Dr. Dr. Eric Hilgendorf (University of Würzburg)

July 10, 2019, 8 p.m., 5.01 EXNO, University Campus Westend
Autonomous technical systems – new subjects of attribution for criminal law?
PD Dr. Boris Burghardt (HU Berlin / Fritz Bauer Institute)

*In cooperation with the Tuesday Seminar of the Institute for Criminal Sciences and Philosophy of Law

Further events and cooperations

June 6, 8 p.m., FKH Bad Homburg
Public lecture at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften (FKH):
Criminal jurisdiction through algorithms?
Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard (GU Frankfurt, Normative Orders)

July 12, 2019, 6 p.m., cinema of the DFF, Frankfurt
In the series Talking About a Revolution:
Can robots be authors? A conversation about copyright and artificial intelligence around the films of Jan Bot
Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger / Prof. Dr. Alexander Peukert (both GU Frankfurt / Normative Orders)

July 16, 2019, 8:15 p.m., DFF Cinema, Frankfurt
In the series Talking About a Revolution:
Is cinema distorting AI? A conversation about privacy, IT trust and representation based on The Circle
Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger / Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard (both GU Frankfurt / Normative Orders)


September 19 to 21, 2019, FKH Bad Homburg
Bad Homburg Conference 2019
Artificial intelligence – How can we trust algorithms?

News from the research center

Event
12.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Zwischen Transformation und Abolitionismus

Book Presentation

Buchvorstellung mit Christine Graebsch, Katrin Höffler, Jochen Bung & Ronen Steinke

more information ›
Event
20.04.2026 | Brussels

Militärische KI verantwortungsvoll nutzen und Regulierung neu denken

Panel Discussion, Lecture

Künstliche Intelligenz findet im Militär immer breiteren Einsatz, von Logistik und Training über Missionsplanung und Zielidentifikation bis hin zu autonomen Waffensystemen. Gleichzeitig wächst die Bedeutung von Mikroprozessoren immer stärker, der Zugang zu seltenen Erden und Chips wird zur zentralen Ressource. KI kann das Kampfgeschehen beschleunigen und damit destabilisierend wirken. Der Wettlauf um neue Fähigkeiten birgt jedoch auch Eskalationsrisiken. Wir laden Sie ein, diese Themen im nächsten Crisis Talk gemeinsam mit unseren hochkarätigen Podiumsgästen zu diskutieren.

more information ›
Event
28./29.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice

Conference

Following the research focus of the Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme, the "Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice" conference places a particular emphasis on themes such as the human right to health, political activism and health justice issues, and problems of structural injustice and vulnerable populations in health care. Keynote lectures by Jonathan Wolff and Kanchana Mahadevan.

more information ›
Publication
26.03.2026 | Monograph

The Cambridge History of Latin American Law in Global Perspective

Duve, Thomas; Herzog, Tamar (eds.): The Cambridge History of Latin American Law in Global Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024 (portugiesisch 2025; spanisch 2026).

more information ›
Publication
26.03.2026 | Monograph

Rechtsgeschichte des frühneuzeitlichen Hispanoamerika

Duve, Thomas; Egío, José Luis  (2023): Rechtsgeschichte des frühneuzeitlichen Hispanoamerika, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023.

more information ›
Event
18.04.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Das Prinzip Donald Trump und die Verrohung der Welt

Panel Discussion, Lecture

Ein neuer Politikstil macht international Karriere. Er ist gekennzeichnet von Vulgarität, Verrohung und erklärter Rechtsfeindschaft. Machtinteressen werden nicht mehr juristisch bemäntelt. Stattdessen wird das angebliche Recht des Stärkeren zur Staatsdoktrin gemacht – innenpolitisch wie außenpolitisch. Treibende Kraft hinter dieser Verrohung der politischen Sitten ist ein US-Präsident, der nicht nur die amerikanische Gesellschaft und Kultur, sondern auch die globale Ordnung nach seinen Vorstellungen und Interessen umgestaltet. Die Römerberggespräche wollen diesen Politikstil verstehen.

more information ›
Event
14.07.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Democracy Over Time and the Climate Crisis

Lecture Series

Vortrag von Anja Karnein (Binghamton). Die Vortragsreihe untersucht Fragen der Klimakrise als Herausforderungen für demokratische Gesellschaften und konzentriert sich auf Themen wie politische Legitimität, Widerstand gegen fossile Brennstoffe und die Interessen künftiger Generationen. Sie wird organisiert von Prof. Dr. Darrel Moellendorf und Dr. Lukas Sparenborg.

more information ›
Event
10.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Capital Investment, Inequality, and State Power in a Time of Climate Emergency

Lecture, Lecture Series

The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.

more information ›
Event
13.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Failed States and Cloudy skies: Tipping Points, Overshoot and Permanent Emergency, after America

Lecture Series

The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.

more information ›