Technology has always had inherent normative consequences. However, with the emergence of digital technology, it becomes highly apparent. Digital development has affected law in a gradual manner. The first step is related to information technology, more specifically to the collection and storing of data of various kinds. With the emergence of the internet of things (IoT) this grew tremendously which made regulation and restrictions important. The second step in the digital development is when the substratum of law goes from real space to virtual space, e.g. when physical property more and more turns into intellectual property, when digital money is introduced and when contracting is more and more about service instead of goods. The third step begins when the technology itself starts to become normative. Code is law as Lawrence Lessig explained it more than two decades ago. With the introduction of algorithms and AI, normativity is no longer just a matter of how technology is programmed and used, but how it becomes an inherent part of the technology. At this stage, we have gone from automation to Artificial Intelligence. From a socio-legal point of view, it is no longer primarily a question of how to regulate the new technology but how the technology via its own norms more and more takes over regulation. There are different orders of normativity - the first related to the algorithm as a technical instruction and the second tied to the consequences they have on the social order, which makes the perspective of Sociology of Law important.
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Front Matter
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PART I: SOCIOLOGY OF LAW BEYOND DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES
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PART II: THE SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF LAW AND LEGAL SYSTEM
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PART III: SOCIOLOGY OF LEGAL DISCIPLINES
