The central aim of this book is to provide an accessible and comprehensive overview of the legal, ethical, and policy implications of AI and algorithmic systems more broadly. As these technologies have a growing impact on all domains of our lives, it is increasingly important to map, understand, and assess the challenges and opportunities they raise. This requires an interdisciplinary approach, which is why this book brings together contributions from a stellar set of authors from different disciplines, with the goal of advancing the understanding of AI’s impact on society and how such impact is and should be regulated. Beyond covering theoretical insights and concepts, the book also provides practical examples of how AI systems are used in society today and which questions are raised thereby, covering both horizontal and sectoral themes. Finally, the book also offers an introduction into the various legal and policy instruments that govern AI, with a particular focus on Europe.

Chapter 4 looks at the Patriarch Lorenzo Priuli’s inspections of the parishes of Venice in the 1590s. The documentary evidence shows that this visitation actively encouraged the commissioning of ever more devotional artworks for the city’s churches. It also gave resolute institutional backing to the parish confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament. A variety of sources show that Priuli’s orders were frequently carried out swiftly by these Scuole, leading to radical transformations to the churches of Venice.

In 2019, the Ghanaian Ministry of Education set forth a new curricular framework for pre-primary education, which specifies a child-centred approach to learning and highlights the importance of creative and play-based learning. Despite being a significant event in the history of pre-primary education, teacher-centred didactic classroom practices are still prevalent after two years of implementation. Research shows that the lack of resources is one of the reasons for teachers’ inability to adopt play-based activities. However, evidence also strongly points to the fact that the majority of teachers do not possess the pedagogical skills to support children’s learning through play. The author of this chapter has been involved in researching teachers’ attitudes and perceptions to play-based learning in Ghana anddraws out the reasons why teachers are unable to successfully integrate play into their activities, focusing on teacher development (i.e. teacher training) and how this can interact with other factors to improve teacher performance in adopting play.

In this conversation, Professor Hiroto Koda investigates the innovation needs of Japanese society. They include embracing digital transformation, addressing the contraction of the population, in particular outside of the Tokyo metropolitan area, and finding solutions for environmental challenges. Against this background, this chapter focuses on five issues: (i) the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating regional degeneration and the delay in digital transformation, (ii) the development of new business models, (iii) the solution of social issues that arise, (iv) collaboration between industry, government, academia and financial institutions and (v) the strengthening of human resources.

Chapter 3 is about industry. The decline of the traditional textile industry is analysed in the context of competition from the new technology of the British industrial revolution. This sector was small part of the economy. A modern industrial sector developed from the middle of the nineteenth century, which was more productive than the traditional sector and it grew rapidly. In 1947, the shares of the modern and the traditional sectors were roughly the same. Entrepreneurship and capital for the modern import substituting cotton textile industry came from the Indian trading communities. British investment in industry was in the exporting sectors, such as tea and jute. After 1947, India adopted a strategy of intermediate and capital goods led industrialization. The process of industrialization was led by the public sector with highly interventionist policies towards trade and industrial location. The role of the private sector was constrained. Yet, the industrial conglomerates owned by family based enterprises prospered and dominated the industrial sector in second half of the twentieth century.

In 1967, Malta’s UN ambassador Arvid Pardo put forward a proposal to internationalise the deep seabed to preserve it for exclusively peaceful purposes and to exploit it for the benefit of all, especially the most impoverished states. This attempt to inhibit the coastal states’ expanding claims did not win unqualified support, as became apparent during the ensuing UN seabed committee discussions. Some Latin American states feared the roll-back of their existing claims, and some land-based mineral producers feared competition from seabed operations. Meanwhile, the maritime powers, while seeing the commercial and naval advantages of an internationalised seabed regime, were nonetheless determined to sideline peaceful purposes and narrow the range of resources deemed to be of common heritage. This was reflected in the ambiguities and omissions in the General Assembly’s Declaration of Principles resolution, which declined to decide the line between the continental shelf and the international seabed, or define the central concepts of ‘common heritage’ and ‘peaceful purposes’.

Young people with cognitive disability, families, and practitioners reported many acts of violence against young people. The violence included physical abuse, sexual assault/abuse, neglect, exploitation, emotional and psychological abuse, and domestic and family violence. Young people were abused by other young people with disability, family members, partners, practitioners, and services. Young people in this book found the strength to speak up and tell their stories of violence.

The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the potential role of Islamic finance as a tool for bridging the gap in current biodiversity financing in the MENA region. It examines the legal and institutional challenges to Islamic biodiversity financing in the MENA region and proffers recommendations on how to address them. This chapter examines the legal framework for advancing Islamic financing for biodiversity in the MENA region. It clarifies the role of Islamic financing approaches in addressing the resources gap, the legal barriers to its effective implementation across the MENA region, and recommendations on how to address such gaps.

The tumultuous early years of the 1973–1982 conference placed enormous strains on both the developing countries and the maritime powers. The ‘group of seventy-seven’ managed to secure recognition of the 200-mile exclusive economic zone and a consent regime for marine scientific research. But the divisions within the group, along with the pressures exerted on it by the powers, meant that they achieved less than they had originally hoped for, with the coastal states losing out to the powers over military activities in the exclusive economic zone, and the landlocked and geographically disadvantaged states losing out to the coastal states over guaranteed access to fishing surpluses. By contrast, the powers’ ‘group of five’ made a strong start to the conference, securing their navigational interests in the territorial sea, then in straits, and then in archipelagos and the exclusive economic zone. Consensus worked in their favour, allowing them, as a minority, to prevail over the majority. But having secured their initial objectives, their incentive to continue cooperating with each other would be weakened as they entered the final stretch of the conference.