Generative AI and the Rule of Law

This chapter explores the application of the Rule of Law to generative AI. It is in the nature of a prolegomenon to debates about the particular rules and principles that should be adopted for the governance of this latest technology. The preliminary issues addressed relate to what the Rule of Law says about private governance, about exemptions for emergency or exceptional states, about how explicit and bespoke governance should be, about participatory and inclusive governance, about substantive constraints, and about universal values (and existential threats). Contrasting the Rule of Law with an ideal of ‘good governance’, the chapter suggests that the right question is not so much whether there are publicly declared rules about the lawful application of generative AI but whether the regulation of generative AI is in line with the ideals of good governance.