Important decisions that impact humans lives, livelihoods, and the natural environment are increasingly being automated. Delegating tasks to so-called automated decision-making systems (ADMS) can improve efficiency and enable new solutions. However, these benefits are coupled with ethical challenges. For example, ADMS may produce discriminatory outcomes, violate individual privacy, and undermine human self-determination. New governance mechanisms are thus needed that help organisations design and deploy ADMS in ways that are ethical, while enabling society to reap the full economic and social benefits of automation. In this article, we consider the feasibility and efficacy of ethics-based auditing (EBA) as a governance mechanism that allows organisations to validate claims made about their ADMS. Building on previous work, we define EBA as a structured process whereby an entity’s present or past behaviour is assessed for consistency with relevant principles or norms. We then offer three contributions to the existing literature. First, we provide a theoretical explanation of how EBA can contribute to good governance by promoting procedural regularity and transparency. Second, we propose seven criteria for how to design and implement EBA procedures successfully. Third, we identify and discuss the conceptual, technical, social, economic, organisational, and institutional constraints associated with EBA. We conclude that EBA should be considered an integral component of multifaced approaches to managing the ethical risks posed by ADMS.

影响人类生活、生计和自然环境的重要决策正日益自动化。将任务委托给所谓的自动决策系统(ADMS) 可以提高效率并启用新的解决方案。然而，这些好处伴随着道德挑战。例如，ADMS 可能会产生歧视性结果、侵犯个人隐私并破坏人类的自决权。因此，需要新的治理机制来帮助组织以合乎道德的方式设计和部署 ADMS，同时使社会能够获得自动化的全部经济和社会效益。在本文中，我们考虑了基于道德的审计的可行性和有效性(EBA) 作为一种治理机制，允许组织验证有关其 ADMS 的声明。在以前的工作的基础上，我们将 EBA 定义为一个结构化的过程，通过该过程评估实体当前或过去的行为与相关原则或规范的一致性。然后，我们对现有文献提供三个贡献。首先，我们提供了 EBA 如何通过促进程序的规律性和透明度来促进良好治理的理论解释。其次，我们提出了如何成功设计和实施 EBA 程序的七个标准。第三，我们确定并讨论了与 EBA 相关的概念、技术、社会、经济、组织和制度限制。我们得出结论，应将 EBA 视为管理 ADMS 带来的道德风险的多方面方法的一个组成部分。