The College of Law at the University of Baghdad discussed a master’s thesis entitled “The Legal Personality of Artificial Intelligence Applications,” submitted by postgraduate student Al-Kawthar Hussein Mohsen Mashi, in the Private Law. The discussion was held on Thursday, August 20, 2026, in the Conference Hall.
The discussion committee consisted of the following professors:
Prof. Dr. Haider Flaih Hassan — Chairman
Prof. Dr. Mohammed Ali Sahib — Member
Assist. Prof. Dr. Nisreen Ghanim Hannoun — Member
Prof. Dr. Ali Mutashar Abdul-Sahib — Member and Supervisor
The thesis aimed to establish the concept of legal personality for artificial intelligence applications, in both their tangible and intangible aspects, and to address the challenges associated with their digital autonomy. It ultimately proposed a legislative recommendation to grant certain advanced AI applications a limited electronic legal personality, in order to regulate liability and protect rights within the contemporary digital environment.
The thesis consisted of three chapters. The first chapter examined the conceptual framework of legal personality and artificial intelligence applications. The second addressed the position on recognizing legal personality for artificial intelligence applications. The third examined the consequences of recognizing legal personality for artificial intelligence applications.
The thesis reached several recommendations, the most important of which were:
First: Enact a unified Artificial Intelligence Law rather than relying solely on partial amendments to civil or commercial law. The recommendation calls for drafting an independent law specifically governing artificial intelligence, bringing together substantive rules, provisions defining legal identity and personality, and procedural rules concerning accountability and compensation, in order to ensure legislative coherence.
Second: The legislator and competent regulatory authorities should consider the possibility of granting certain AI applications a limited and restricted electronic legal personality, provided that such personality does not exceed the functions and primary purpose for which the intelligent system was created. In its regulatory nature, this status would be similar to the legal status of a juridical person, while completely excluding any comparison or analogy with the elements of legal personality applicable to natural persons.
Third: Establish a central registry for intelligent applications, through the creation of an official register closely resembling the commercial registry for companies. All autonomous AI applications would be registered in this database, with their digital identity, manufacturer, level of autonomy, and owner clearly identified. The registry would serve as a “birth certificate” for the purpose of granting the application legal personality.
