Algorithmic Responsibility in Public Administration: The Council of State on Decision-Making Software Transparency

1. The facts

   As reported by specialized legal journals, the matter culminated in rulings by the Council of State that concluded extensive litigation between the Ministry of Education and thousands of teachers. At the core of the dispute was the algorithm implemented under the Buona Scuola reform (Law 107/2015), used to manage national teacher mobility. The petitioners complained that the software operated as a black box, assigning distant locations to teachers with higher scores without any logical justification. The Ministry initially raised trade secrecy to deny access to the source code, claiming that the algorithm was a mere technical execution tool.

2. 

   The legal framework

   1. Law 241/1990 establishes the principles of transparency and the duty to provide reasons for administrative measures, the absence of which renders the act unlawful due to procedural or reasoning defects.
   2. The Digital Administration Code (CAD) (Legislative Decree 82/2005) requires Public Administrations to digitize processes while ensuring full transparency and knowability of the IT systems used.
   3. The GDPR (EU Regulation 2016/679), in Articles 13 and 22, grants data subjects the right to receive meaningful information about the logic involved in automated processing and not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing without meaningful human intervention.

3. What the case law says

   Highest administrative case law has established that algorithms must be qualified as automated administrative acts, subject to the same standards of judicial review as traditional measures. Judges have ruled that commercial secrecy cannot be invoked when software is used to exercise public powers, as citizens have the right to know the technical rule embedded in the algorithm. Furthermore, the human-in-the-loop principle was confirmed, requiring human intervention and validation of automated decisions to ensure compliance with the principle of legality.

5. Analysis drafted and verified with edit.legal

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8. What it teaches professionals

   1. It is essential to promptly request access not only to the outcome, but to the source code and the underlying algorithmic logic.
   2. Legal practitioners must verify full compliance with the human-in-the-loop principle, challenging purely automated decisions that lack proper attribution to a responsible official.
   3. It is advisable to involve technical experts to translate programming logic into clear legal arguments suitable for judicial review before administrative courts.

References: Legge 241/1990D.Lgs. 82/2005Regolamento UE 2016/679

Editorial oversight: Avv. Federico Papa·ICAMUpdated 30 August 2026Content drafted with AI support and subject to editorial source checks. Despite these controls, inaccuracies may remain: reports and rectification requests are welcome. Report a correction