Normative Regulation of the Digital World: Summary of the Research Project IUF

Abstract

As a new transnational territory of the law, the digital world has infatuated a multitude of public and private actors today, regardless of whether they pursue not-for-profit or for-profit goals. Omnipresent in social and economic life, digital technology raises many expectations, whether it is as: a lever of economic growth, a tool for governmental transparency and relationships between the administration and its citizens, a medium for many major applications -- in particular in the field of health or, finally, a favored means of communication connecting individuals all around the world.Nevertheless, this new space deserves deep thought with respect to the means of its normative regulation, still to be built. If specific legal rules have been adopted in order to govern the changes brought about by information and communication technologies, they are now insufficient to cope with the current and future potentials for connected things generating a massive collection of digital data. Their algorithmic processing will increase, at the risk of a governance by the numbers. Thus, the central question is what kind of democracy we want to build in this informational mass, control of which is escaping citizens. It is thus urgent to analyze the already-adopted legal rules, in particular in Europe and in North America, and to discover any inadequacies that they may present. In particular, it is essential to establish limits and responsibilities faced with a technology, the practices of which could partially escape man’s control or harm society’s weakest individuals.