Abstract：The idea of conflict of law comes from Bartolus’ the theory of statues. Bartolus starts from the nature of the statute, and divides it into “real law” and “personal law”. “Personal law” follows the person, regardless of where he is, and has extraterritorial effect. “Real law” has strict territoriality; regardless of the country or residence of the owner, lex situs should be applied. Whether an intelligent robot is to be identified as a person or a thing will affect the application of its conflict of laws rules, and will also lead to different governing laws. The essential reason why intelligent robots are considered to have the attributes of both persons and things is the intelligence possessed by intelligent robots. Since Pascal put forward the proposition that “man is a thinking reed”, intelligence seems to be the most distinctive feature that distinguishes humans from animals. However, if an intelligent robot is identified as a person only because of its intelligence, it will inevitably lead to thinking about how intelligent a person is and whether there is a standard to judge the intelligence of human beings. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence and biotechnology, this seems to make it possible for persons and things to transform into each other. We should actively and prudently reflect on the possibility that intelligent robots may become the subject status of persons and the object meaning of things, and adopt a forward-looking and pragmatic attitude to solve a series of new problems arising from it. The design logic of intelligent robots is based on a single architecture of “if-then”, rather than a “if-maybe” multi-valued structure. Its behavior patterns are all supported by algorithms written by humans. In the current context, robots still belong to things. The advent of the high-tech era will have a great impact on the traditional division of the scope of persons and things, leading to the dilemma of the adjustment of the typology of choice of law rules. The purpose of law is always to hold the line, not to define limits. The conflict of laws per se possesses a guiding function. It should reflect the distinct attitude of a country’s economy, politics, culture, science and technology in the process of globalization, and it is a window of the country’s display in the civil and commercial field and the degree of attention to the high-tech industry. Only by adding new scope and forming systematic choice of law rules can the appropriate conflict of law rules be formulated and the effective governance of global private law be realized. The conflict of law rules of the real right of the intelligent robot can be stipulated as the real right of it, and the parties can choose the applicable law of the real right by agreement, but it does not have the effect against the bona fide third party. If the parties have no choice, lex situs of the intelligent robot at the time of the occurrence of legal facts shall apply. However, according to the actual situation, if the location of the intelligent robot is not closely related to the case but is more closely related to another law, an exception may be made to apply the law more closely related to it.
梅傲. 冲突法视野下智能机器人的物权法则[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2022, 52(12): 57-68.
Mei Ao. Property Law of Intelligent Robots from the Perspective of Conflict of Laws. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2022, 52(12): 57-68.
2022, Vol. 52 
