Delivering on the Promise of the Fundamental Rights Impact Assessments in the EU AI Act: Intersectionality and Vulnerability
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the adequacy of the fundamental rights impact assessment (FRIA) model as a means of safeguarding human rights in the context of high-risk systems in the EU AI Act. With Article 27 AI Act as the baseline context we analyse the ‘genre’ of impact assessments. The fundamental rights referenced in the AI Act are linked to relevant provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR). It is argued that, in addition to the 23 rights identified by the AI Act, the use of AI has the potential to impact all substantive CFR rights, albeit not to an equal measure. Drawing on this analysis the paper highlights limitations in the conceptualisation of FRIAs that will compromise their capacity to identify and mitigate the fundamental rights impacts. As issues pertaining to direct horizontal effect might emerge in litigation, the paper concludes by arguing that meaningful FRIAs will preferably require recourse to frameworks unconventional in EU law, such as intersectionality and the vulnerable subject theory.
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