Credibility and law: the role of technology in the evaluation of international protection applications. The German asylum law case

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Andrea Romano
University of Barcelona
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0919-7685

The article examines the introduction of automated systems and artificial intelligence (AI) in determining the credibility of applicants for international protection in Germany. To this end, it focuses on the examination of two instruments, namely the extraction and evaluation of data contained in the electronic devices of asylum seekers, and the linguistic analysis performed by a piece of software capable of establishing the most likely country of origin of the applicant. Addressing German doctrine and jurisprudence, the article may serve the purpose of exploring, from the standpoint of asylum law, the tension between objectivity and efficiency of decisions in the public sector and the protection of fundamental rights.

Keywords
algorithms, artificial intelligence, international protection, fundamental rights

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Romano, Andrea. “Credibility and law: the role of technology in the evaluation of international protection applications. The German asylum law case”. IDP. Internet, Law and Politics E-Journal, no. 39, pp. 1-12, doi:10.7238/idp.v0i39.417280.
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(c) Andrea Romano, 2023


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Author Biography

Andrea Romano, University of Barcelona

Serra Húnter lecturer of Constitutional Law at the University of Barcelona and Doctor of Law at La Sapienza University of Rome (2014). He has been a postdoctoral researcher in Italy (La Sapienza University of Rome), Switzerland (University of Fribourg), and Spain (Universidad Castilla La Mancha and Institute for Self-Government). He has collaborated as an international protection expert with different institutions. He is co-coordinator of The External Dimension of EU Migration and Asylum Policies: Border Management, Human Rights and Development Policies in the Mediterranean Area (Nomos, 2020), and has published in national and international journals (Revista d’Estudis Autonòmics i Federals, Anuario CIDOB de la Immigración, Diritto pubblico, Revista Catalana de Dretpublic). Since 2016 he has been a member of the Public Law Observatory (IDP) of Barcelona. His main lines of research include immigration, international protection, artificial intelligence and constitutional jurisdiction.  

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