Human & Things
The second edition of Human and Things emerges from an urgent need to rethink the paradigms through which we understand the world in the face of ecological crisis and rapid technological transformation. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, the conference challenges the anthropocentric and deterministic assumptions of modernity, questioning the idea of a fully knowable and controllable reality. As artificial intelligence, algorithmic systems, and digital infrastructures reshape how we perceive, act, and decide, the boundary between humans and things becomes increasingly unstable. Drawing on insights from quantum physics, law, and the humanities, the conference explores a relational view of reality, where knowledge, control, and agency are fundamentally limited. In this shifting landscape, law itself must be reimagined—moving beyond models of domination toward more situated, plural, and adaptive forms of normativity.
27 May 2026 - 14:30-19:00
Fondazione Bruno Kessler FBK, Via Santa Croce 77 - Sala Grande
Welcome address
I Session: Reframing Modernity through Quantum, Legal and Anthropological Lenses
Introduced and moderated by Davide Gianti - Faculty of Law UNITO
Massimo Leone - Center for Religious Studies FBK - Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences, UNITO
(Key Note) The Rebellion of Things in the Digital and Quantum Age
Federico Laudisia - Department of Humanities and Philosophy UNITN
The Conceptual Challenges of Quantum Mechanics: Potentialities and Limits
Richard Hall-Wilton - Center for Sensors and Devices FBK
Objects & Things?
Elena Ioriatti - Faculty of Law UNITN
Modern Physics and Comparative Law: Methodological Convergences in a Global Perspective
Coffee Break
Andrea Pradi - Faculty of Law UNITN
Beyond Dominion: Rethinking Property in an Entangled World
Luca Pes - Faculty of Law UNITN
Human, Things, and African Law: Alternative Forms of Ownership
Gianmatteo Sabatino - Faculty of Law UNITN
Law, Governance, and Property in Contemporary China
Q&A
28 May 2026 - 9:30-13:00
Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, Via Verdi 53 - Sala Conferenze "Fulvio Zuelli"
II Session - Virtual Identity, Data, and Agency in the Digital Age
Introduced and moderated by Andrea Pradi (Faculty of Law Unitn)
Ugo Mattei – Faculty of Law UNITO
(Key Note) The Metaverse and the End of Law?
Sara Hejazi – Center for Sensors and Devices FBK
From Love to Entanglement: AI and the Reconfiguration of Human–Thing Relations
Ugo Malvagna - Faculty of Law UNITN
From Subject to Asset: Blockchain and the Reversal of Property Relations
Coffee Break
Emanuele Ariano - Faculty of Law UNITO
Code Rewriting: Legal Discourse in the Age of Technocracy
Giorgia Bincoletto - Faculty of Law UNITN
The Human Being and Identity: When the Self Becomes Data
Stefano Borgo - Laboratory of Applied Ontology CNR
Applied Ontology and the Notion of Interaction in the Agent/Thing Dichotomy
Q&A
28 May 2026 – 14:30-17:00
Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, Via Verdi 53 - Sala Conferenze "Fulvio Zuelli"
III Session Conclusional Section:
Introduced and moderated by Sara Hejazi (Center for Sensors and Devices FBK)
Federica Mantegazzini - Center for Sensors and Devices FBK
The Boundary of Knowledge: A Classical Observer in the Quantum Realm
Andrea Rossato - Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science UNITN
Virtual Domains: Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and Computational Power
Pier Giuseppe Monateri - Faculty of Law UNITO
Human, Things and the Limits of Control: Concluding Reflections
Q&A
Scientific Committee: Richard Hall-Wilton (FBK), Sara Hejazi (FBK), Elena Ioriatti (UNITN), Massimo Leone (FBK), Ugo Malvagna (UNITN), Andrea Pradi (UNITN)
Attendance is possible both in person and online. For online attendance please fill out this form
This event is co-funded by Dipartimento di Eccellenza, by the Faculty project Piano Strategico della Facoltà Obiettivo Strategico 5 Scientific Coordinator Elena Ioriatti; and by Fondazione Bruno Kessler.