From Europe’s rights-based ai regulation to Korea’s innovation-oriented framework: diverging philosophies in global digital and ai governance

Abstract

This article examines the divergent regulatory philosophies shaping global digital and AI governance by comparing the European Union’s rights-based regulatory model, Italy’s enforcement-oriented domestic adaptation, and Korea’s innovation-oriented AI framework. It argues that the EU has emerged as a global regulatory power through its Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, and Artificial Intelligence Act, embedding principles such as human dignity, transparency, accountability, and fundamental rights protection into the architecture of digital governance. Conceptually, the article situates the EU’s regulatory influence within the framework of the Brussels Effect, showing how European digital and AI standards extend beyond the EU market and shape broader international governance debates. Empirically, it analyzes the EU AI Act’s risk-based regulatory structure and Italy’s national AI legislation, which deepens EU regulatory logic through digital humanism, criminal liability, watermarking obligations, and strong institutional oversight. The article then turns to Korea’s AI Basic Act, highlighting its more flexible and innovation-oriented approach. Unlike the EU and Italian models, Korea places greater emphasis on industrial development, data utilization, and adaptive governance while selectively incorporating risk-based regulatory elements. Rather than treating these models as mutually exclusive, the article argues that they reveal complementary pathways in global AI governance. It concludes that future Korea–EU cooperation should move beyond technical regulation and address the deeper philosophical challenge of reconciling human-centered accountability with technological innovation.