The College of Law, University of Baghdad, held a defence of a master’s thesis entitled “The Theory of the Human Deputy in Establishing Civil Liability for Damages Caused by Intelligent Machines”, submitted by the student Haider Alaa Abdulhussein, on Thursday, September 18, 2025, in the Model Court Hall.
The examining committee consisted of:
Prof. Dr. Haider Faleh Hassan (Chair)
Prof. Dr. Habeeb Ubaid Mirza (Member)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nada Abdul-Kadhim Hussein (Member)
Prof. Dr. Ali Mutasher Abdul-Sahib (Member and Supervisor)
The thesis aimed to identify the unique characteristics of intelligent machines, highlight the shortcomings of traditional theories of civil liability in addressing the damages caused by such machines, and analyze the Theory of the Human Deputy, derived by legal scholarship from the European Parliament Resolution on Civil Law Rules on Robotics (2017), as a response to the limitations of conventional approaches.
The thesis was structured into three chapters: the first examined the concept of intelligent machines; the second evaluated traditional theories of establishing civil liability for their damages; and the third analyzed the Theory of the Human Deputy as a framework for establishing such liability.
The study reached several key recommendations, most notably:
1) It proposes that the Iraqi legislator draw on the European experience under the amended Directive on Defective Products by classifying intelligent systems as “products,” imposing disclosure obligations to facilitate the plaintiff’s proof of claim, and broadening the concept of defect by holding the producer liable for risks associated with the operation of intelligent machines even after their release into circulation, given that the producer retains a degree of control over their activities.
2) It recommends benefiting from the European Parliament Resolution on Civil Liability for Artificial Intelligence Systems (2020), which distributes liability between front-end and back-end operators of intelligent machines, establishing their responsibility on an objective basis, supported by mandatory insurance and a complementary compensation fund.