Book

Description

As public power becomes increasingly mediated by algorithms, the fundamental question is no longer simply whether automated systems are accurate or efficient, but whether the exercise of authority remains intelligible, contestable, and compatible with human dignity. Algorithmic Authority and the Right to Contest examines how algorithmic decision-making is reshaping the relationship between individuals and public institutions. Moving across due process, human dignity, administrative power, risk assessment, transparency, and accountability, the book asks what happens when decisions affecting rights and opportunities are influenced by systems whose reasoning may be difficult to see, understand, or challenge. Drawing on legal doctrine, interdisciplinary scholarship, and concrete institutional and judicial developments, Tuğba Tosun Çobanoğlu develops a framework for evaluating algorithmic public power beyond formal compliance. At its centre is the right to contest: the proposition that meaningful legal protection requires more than access to an appeal. Individuals must be able to understand how authority has operated, challenge consequential reasoning, obtain an effective remedy, and ensure that institutional systems can learn from repeated errors. The book ultimately argues that technological sophistication cannot substitute for legal justification. In an age of AI, the legitimacy of public power depends not only on what institutions can predict or automate, but on whether the human being affected by a decision remains visible as a rights-bearing subject.