Deadline Extension to LEA05

From Rossella Rubino, of CIRSFID / University of Bologna, we've just received the following communication:
"After receiving some requests, we have extended the submission deadline for LEA05 to April 11 2005.

The Workshop on the Law and Electronic Agents (LEA05) will be held in conjunction with the Tenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL 2005) Bologna, Italy 6 -11 June 2005.

Recent years have seen an increasing deployment of electronic agents (or software agents) for numerous network applications such as personalised information management, electronic commerce and management of commercial processes. As electronic agents enter the information environment and electronic marketplaces, they engage in a number of activities which are significant for the law: accessing computer systems and networks, retrieving and spreading information, mediating personal and business relations, buying and selling material and immaterial goods. Through such activities agents may trigger off relevant consequences for their users, owners and developers, as well as their counter-parties, consequences pertaining to different areas of the law, such as contract, tort, criminal responsibility, intellectual property and data protection. How to legally conceptualise and regulate agent-based interaction is both a stimulating theme for lawyers and legal theorists, and a crucial issue for the success of agent-based applications and the secure development of the information society. But there is also the challenge to customise electronic agents for the support of lawyers. The workshop aims at providing a forum for investigating the law of electronic agents, keeping into account the most recent advances in the study of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems, as well as the societal, economic and legal framework in which agent-based systems are employed.

Topics of interest

• Legal capacity and personality of agents
• Legal relevance of mental states of agents (intention, negligence, etc.)
• Ownership and other entitlements over agents
• Agents as holders of rights, duties and powers
• Agents as legal representatives
• Agents as mediators in legal transactions
• Agent-to-agent and agent-to-human interaction in a legal perspective
• Contracts made through/by electronic agents (contractual liability)
• Liability for the damage caused by electronic agents (liability in tort)
• Agents and data protection
• Agents and copyright/patent/sui generis/know how infringement
• Intellectual property rights over agent-based software
• Agents and computer crime
• Agents as self-enforcing regulatory tools
• Electronic agents and dispute resolution
• Codes of conduct and best practices for agents
• Agents for legal practice
• Agents in B2C transactions
• Agent-based commercial applications

Submissions and Attendance
Participants should submit a paper (of about 20000 - 25000 characters with footnotes and spaces), describing relevant preliminary or completed work to be presented at the workshop. People interested in making a presentation without submitting a paper are encouraged to submit a statement of interest, consisting of a single page description of research interests and current work, to be used to encourage discussion and to ensure the maximum contribution and participation. All submissions should include: author's name(s), affiliation, (complete) mailing address, phone and fax number and e-mail address. Preferably, papers should be submitted in a standard format (txt, pdf, doc, rtf) to C. Cevenini or A. Oskamp.
The deadline for receipt of submissions is April 11th 2005 (12:00AM). All papers will be reviewed by the programme committee and selected on their originality, timeliness, relevance and clarity. Notification of acceptance will be communicated by April 25th 2005. Final paper due May 10th 2005.
The accepted papers will be published in the proceedings of the workshop and on the LEA website http://www.lea-online.net/

Important dates: Submission deadline: April 11th / Notification of acceptance: April 25th / Final paper due: May 10th

Conference officials Program Chair: Anne Gardner / Conference Chair: Giovanni Sartor

Programme Committee: Anja Oskamp, CLI, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (A.Oskamp@rechten.vu.nl) (co-chair) Claudia Cevenini, CIRSFID, University of Bologna (cevenini@cirfid.unibo.it) (co-chair)

Jon Bing, University of Oslo / Giovanni Sartor, University of Bologna / Kevin Ashley, University of Pittsburgh / Sonia Bergamaschi, University of Modena / Danièle Bourcier, CNRSA, University of Paris 2 / Frances Brazier, Free University of Amsterdam / Cristiano Castelfranchi, University of Siena / Jim Cunningham, Imperial College London / Andrew J.I. Jones, Kings College London / Daniela Memmo, University of Bologna / Andrea Omicini, University of Bologna / Giovanni Pascuzzi, University of Trento / Jeremy Pitt, Imperial College London / Burkhard Schäfer, University of Edinburgh / Marek Sergot, Imperial College London / Emily Weitzenbock, University of Oslo.

For further information please visit the http://www.lea-online.net/ page"