AI and Human Rights: Professor Yuval Shany on AI, Law, and Global Accountability

Episode summary

How can human rights frameworks keep pace with the rapid development and global impact of artificial intelligence? In this episode of Accelerating AI Ethics, Professor Yuval Shany, a leading international law scholar and 2024–25 Fellow of the Accelerator Fellowship Programme at the Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford, explores how legal systems can help ensure AI supports, rather than threatens, fundamental rights.

In conversation with Dr Caroline Green, Professor Shany considers the case for an AI Bill of Rights, the challenge of regulating powerful private actors, and how international law might evolve to meet the demands of a technological era. This timely and far-reaching conversation addresses the legal, ethical, and democratic foundations of AI governance.

Professor Yuval Shany

Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in Public International Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, former Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and 2024–25 Fellow of the Accelerator Fellowship Programme at the Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford. Professor Shany’s research focuses on international law, human rights, and the regulation of emerging technologies.

Topics covered

• The rationale for an AI Bill of Rights
• Emerging gaps between private technological power and public oversight
• Why international law is still a vital tool for AI governance
• Balancing innovation and legitimacy in legal frameworks
• Opportunities and constraints in current human rights instruments
• How democratic accountability must be embedded into the design of AI systems

Resources and links

• European Commission – Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA)
• U.S. Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights
• OECD AI Principles
• Council of Europe – Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI)
• UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
• United Nations Human Rights Committeent...