The International Legal Personality of Artificial Intelligence: An Integrative Epistemological Problem in Light of Developments in Contemporary International Law

Abstract

This study addresses one of the most complex and unsettled questions confronting contemporary international law: the recognition of international legal personality for artificial intelligence systems, in light of their rapidly escalating capabilities and their growing role in decision-making at both national and international levels. The study proceeds from a foundational premise: that the existing international legal framework was not originally designed to accommodate non-human entities with evolving cognitive and technical capabilities — creating a dangerous legal vacuum that demands rigorous academic treatment integrating international legal scholarship with multi-disciplinary knowledge.

The study traces the historical evolution of the concept of international legal personality — from states as the original subjects of international law, through the landmark 1949 ICJ Advisory Opinion on Reparation for Injuries which recognized international organizations as international legal persons, to the contemporary doctrinal debate surrounding the potential conferral of some degree of international legal capacity upon AI systems. It analyses pioneering legislative developments in this domain, most notably the European Parliament's 2017 resolution on the status of robots as 'electronic persons', and UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/79/325 of 2025 on AI governance.

Employing an integrative multi-disciplinary methodology that brings together public international law, legal philosophy, and computer science, the study examines three central themes: first, an analysis of the criteria for international legal personality and their applicability to AI systems; second, an examination of the international responsibility challenges arising from the acts of such systems in the absence of explicit international norms; and third, a proposed academic model for an international legal framework governing the legal status of AI — one that balances the imperatives of technological innovation with the necessities of international legal accountability. In doing so, the study embodies the very essence of this conference's motto: When disciplines converge, innovation is born.