Technology As Regulation: Tensions, Transitions, and Tectonic Shifts in Governance

Publication Date: 01/01/2025

Volume: 4

Pages: 211-228

DOI: 10.1515/9783111346632-011

Abstract:

This chapter focuses on technology as regulation, on the various tools that now can be deployed for governance purposes, particularly for channeling conduct and dealing with disputes. Potentially, these tools, which can operate in the service of rules as well as alongside humans, but which might also be deployed to replace both humans and governance by rules, represent a tectonic shift in the plates of governance. However, any transition to technological regulation will not be without some tension. While support for technology as regulation is likely to build on discontent with law’s imperfect and all too human governance by rules, there is likely to be resistance where the tools are applied in ways that violate fundamental values (such as human dignity and privacy), where the tools (or their promoters) are not ‘trusted,’ and where applications are judged to deviate from being ‘human-centric’.

Source: Scopus