Rethinking Law Regulation And Technology

This insightful book presents a radical rethinking of the relationship between law, regulation, and technology. While in traditional legal thinking technology is neither of particular interest nor concern, this book treats modern technologies as doubly significant, both as major targets for regulation and as potential tools to be used for legal and regulatory purposes. It explores whether our institutions for engaging with new technologies are fit for purpose.

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 are introducing Law 3.0. Law 3.0 represents, so to speak, the state we are in and the conversation that we now need to have, and this book identifies some of the key points for discussion in that conversation. Thinking like a lawyer might continue to be associated with Law 1.0, but from 2020 onward, Law 3.0 is the conversation that we all need to join. And, as this book argues, law and the evolution of legal reasoning cannot be adequately understood unless we grasp the significance of technology in shaping both legal doctrine and our regulatory thinking. This is a book for those studying, or about to study, law – as well as others with interests in the legal, political, and social impact of technology.

This thought-provoking book challenges the way we think about regulating cryptoassets. Bringing a timely new perspective, Syren Johnstone critiques the application of a financial regulation narrative to cryptoassets, questioning the assumptions on which it is based and whether regulations developed in the 20th century remain fit to apply to a technology emerging in the 21st.

The rapid increase in Internet usage over the past several decades has led to the development of new and essential areas of legislation and legal study. Jacqueline Lipton takes on the thorny question of how to define the field that has come to be known

This thought-provoking book challenges the way we think about the regulation of cryptoassets based on cryptographic consensus technology. Bringing a timely new perspective, Syren Johnstone critiques the application of a financial regulation narrative to cryptoassets, questions the assumptions on which it is based, and considers its impact on industry development. Providing new insights into the dynamics of oversight regulation, Johnstone argues that the financial narrative stifles the 'New Prospect' for the formation of novel commercial relationships and institutional arrangements. The book asks whether regulations developed in the 20th century remain appropriate to apply to a technology emerging in the 21st, suggesting it is time to think about how to regulate for ecosystem development. Johnstone concludes with proposals for reform, positing a new framework that facilitates industry aspirations while remaining sustainable and compatible with regulatory objectives. Rethinking the Regulation of Cryptoassets will be an invaluable read for policy makers, regulators and technologists looking for a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding cryptoasset regulation and possible alternative approaches. It will also be of interest to scholars and students researching the intersection of law, technology, regulation and finance.

At the same time that the pace of science and technology has greatly accelerated in recent decades, our legal and ethical oversight mechanisms have become bogged down and slower. This book addresses the growing gap between the pace of science and technology and the lagging responsiveness of legal and ethical oversight society relies on to govern emerging technologies. Whether it be biotechnology, genetic testing, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, computer privacy, autonomous robotics, or any of the other many emerging technologies, new approaches are needed to ensure appropriate and timely regulatory responses. This book documents the problem and offers a toolbox of potential regulatory and governance approaches that might be used to ensure more responsive oversight.

Cyberspace is a difficult area for lawyers and lawmakers. With no physical constraining borders, the question of who is the legitimate lawmaker for cyberspace is complex. Rethinking the Jurisprudence of Cyberspace examines how laws can gain legitimacy in cyberspace and identifies the limits of the law’s authority in this space.

During the middle third of the 20th century, workers in most industrialized countries secured a substantial measure of job security, whether through legislation, contract or social practice. This “standard employment contract,” as it was known, became the foundation of an impressive array of rights and entitlements, including social insurance and pensions, protection against unsociable working conditions, and the right to bargain collectively. Recent changes in technology and the global economy, however, have dramatically eroded this traditional form of employment. Employers now value flexibility over stability, and increasingly hire employees for short-term or temporary work. Many countries have also repealed labor laws, relaxed employee protections, and reduced state-provided benefits. As the old system of worker protection declines, how can labor regulation be improved to protect workers? In Rethinking Workplace Regulation, nineteen leading scholars from ten countries and half a dozen disciplines present a sweeping tour of the latest policy experiments across the world that attempt to balance worker security and the new flexible employment paradigm. Edited by noted socio-legal scholars Katherine V.W. Stone and Harry Arthurs, Rethinking Workplace Regulation presents case studies on new forms of dispute resolution, job training programs, social insurance and collective representation that could serve as policy models in the contemporary industrialized world. The volume leads with an intriguing set of essays on legal attempts to update the employment contract. For example, Bruno Caruso reports on efforts in the European Union to “constitutionalize” employment and other contracts to better preserve protective principles for workers and to extend their legal impact. The volume then turns to the field of labor relations, where promising regulatory strategies have emerged. Sociologist Jelle Visser offers a fresh assessment of the Dutch version of the ‘flexicurity’ model, which attempts to balance the rise in nonstandard employment with improved social protection by indexing the minimum wage and strengthening rights of access to health insurance, pensions, and training. Sociologist Ida Regalia provides an engaging account of experimental local and regional “pacts” in Italy and France that allow several employers to share temporary workers, thereby providing workers job security within the group rather than with an individual firm. The volume also illustrates the power of governments to influence labor market institutions. Legal scholars John Howe and Michael Rawling discuss Australia's innovative legislation on supply chains that holds companies at the top of the supply chain responsible for employment law violations of their subcontractors. Contributors also analyze ways in which more general social policy is being renegotiated in light of the changing nature of work. Kendra Strauss, a geographer, offers a wide-ranging comparative analysis of pension systems and calls for a new model that offers “flexible pensions for flexible workers.” With its ambitious scope and broad inquiry, Rethinking Workplace Regulation illustrates the diverse innovations countries have developed to confront the policy challenges created by the changing nature of work. The experiments evaluated in this volume will provide inspiration and instruction for policymakers and advocates seeking to improve worker’s lives in this latest era of global capitalism.