This book argues that law, regulation, and technology can be understood as particular kinds of governance projects, and their credentials assessed according to an overarching concept of good governance.The book introduces the ideas of ‘governance by law’ and ‘governance by regulation’ as particular types of projects within a constellation of governance projects–some normative, some non-normative, and some hybrid. As such, legal and regulatory projects can be differentiated from eac...

This book analyses discontent with law and assesses the prospect of better governance by technology.In the first part of the book, where the context is ‘low tech’, the range of discontent with law is examined; the underlying reasons for such discontent are identified (namely, the human nature of the legal enterprise, its reliance on rules, and the pluralistic nature of human communities); and the reasonableness of such discontent is assessed. In the second part of the book, where t...

In the context of the technological disruption of law and, in particular, the prospect of governance by machines, this book reconsiders the demand that we should respect the law, simply because it is the law.What does ‘the law’ need to look like to justify our respect? Responding to this question, the book takes the form of a dialectic between, on the one side, the promise of the prospectus for law and, on the other, the discontent provoked by the performance of law in practice; th...

This book offers a radically different introduction to law, one that reflects the challenges and opportunities presented by the rapid technological developments of our time.Traditionally, law has been about historic principles and rules and their application to a particular set of facts; and courts, judges, and disputes have been central to the legal enterprise. Against this approach, this book highlights four radical and revisionist ideas: by bringing modern technologies into the ...

This book considers the implications of the regulatory burden being borne increasingly by technological management rather than by rules of law. If crime is controlled, if human health and safety are secured, if the environment is protected, not by rules but by measures of technological management—designed into products, processes, places and so on—what should we make of this transformation?In an era of smart regulatory technologies, how should we understand the ‘regulatory environm...

Putting technology front and centre in our thinking about law, this book introduces Law 3.0: the future of the legal landscape.Technology not only disrupts the traditional idea of what it is ‘to think like a lawyer,’ as per Law 1.0; it presents major challenges to regulators who are reasoning in a Law 2.0 mode. As this book demonstrates, the latest developments in technology offer regulators the possibility of employing a technical fix rather than just relying on rules – thus, we a...

Law and the Technologies of the Twenty-First Century provides a contextual account of the way in which law functions in a broader regulatory environment across different jurisdictions. It identifies and clearly structures the four key challenges that technology poses to regulatory efforts, distinguishing between technology as a regulatory target and tool, and guiding the reader through an emerging field that is subject to rapid change. By extensive use of examples and extracts from the tex...

In recent years, the use of AI has skyrocketed. The introduction of widely available generative AI, such as ChatGPT, has reinvigorated concerns for harm caused to users. Yet so far government bodies and scholarly literature have failed to determine a governance structure to minimize the risks associated with AI and big data. Despite the recent consensus among tech companies and governments that AI needs to be regulated, there has been no agreement regarding what a framework of functional A...

The variety, pace, and power of technological innovations that have emerged in the 21st Century have been breathtaking. These technological developments, which include advances in networked information and communications, biotechnology, neurotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, and environmental engineering technology, have raised a number of vital and complex questions. Although these technologies have the potential to generate positive transformation and help address 'grand societal cha...

This edited collection explores the disruptive effects of technology on law: in particular, the challenge presented to regulators as they strive to manage the transition from one technological state to another (such as the transition from analogue to digital or from fossil fuels to green renewables) and the opportunities (and challenges) presented as regulators transition from traditional rule-based legal governance to governance that relies on new technologies and tools.It brings ...

This edited collection seeks to map the landscape of contemporary informational interests, to evaluate a range of recognised and putative rights and wrongs associated with modern information societies, and to consider how law, regulation, and governance should be deployed in response.New technologies and new applications constantly disrupt our values, our framing of our world, and our sense of where we are and who we are. In our ‘information societies’, we entertain mixed hopes and...

There remains an urgent need for a deeper discussion of the theoretical, political and federal dimensions of the European codification project. While much valuable work has already been undertaken, the chapters in this volume take as their starting point the proposition that further reflection and critical thought will enhance the quality and efficacy of the on-going work of the various codification bodies. The volume contains chapters by representatives of the Common Frame of Reference, t...