Law Disrupted, Law Re-Imagined, Law Re-Invented

Abstract

This article describes the technological disruption of law and legal reasoning, suggests how law might be re-imagined, and then proposes four key elements in the re-invention of law. Two waves of disruption are identified. One wave impacts on the content of legal rules and the way in which we perceive the deficiency of those rules. A second wave impacts on our appreciation of technological instruments as tools to be used for regulatory purposes in support of, or even in place of, legal rules. The suggested re-imagination of law centres on the idea of the regulatory environment, broadly conceived to include both normative and non-normative signals. The proposed re-invention of law has four strands. It starts with (i) a fresh understanding of the range of regulatory responsibilities. This understanding then shapes (ii) the articulation of the Rule of Law and it informs both (iii) a renewal of traditional coherentist thinking and (iv) a reshaping of legal and regulatory institutions.