Abstract

In recent years, in the face of the growing complexity of administrative decision-making, public administrations are increasingly resorting to automation by using increasingly sophisticated algorithms. The use of these algorithms marks the passage of the computer from a tool to support public administrators decision-making to an instrument that governs the entire decision-making process without any human intervention. A new administrative will is emerging: the algorithmic administrative will. This reality poses new and important questions. They concern not only the legitimacy and transparency of administrative action, but also the protection of personal rights. Faced with the overwhelming power of the machine-computer, the individual ends up being merely the object of a machine decision. Within the framework of a new relationship between legal science and new technologies, EU Regulation 2016/679 attempted to reconcile the primacy of the rights of the individual with the needs of the digital economy and the development of e-Government. In particular, it recognised wide regulatory autonomy for Member States. This essay sets out to examine more closely this complex issue.