Sources of Public Relations Legal Regulation in Cyberspace

Abstract

The paper criticizes the relatively recent view that traditional legal norms cannot be applied to public relations regulation in cyberspace. Researchers are debating whether it is permissible to regulate relationships arising from the use of computer technologies, such as cryptocurrency turnover and other relationships on the blockchain platform, by means of law. Opponents of legal regulation of cryptocurrency turnover refer to the impossibility of regulating computer technology by legal means. It is known that the lack of legal regulation of public relations is no less harmful than their overregulation. The author analyzes classical, "modernist", and eclectic approaches to the legal regulation of public relations in cyberspace. According to the author, public relations in the web space, including those that arise on the blockchain platform, can be regulated not only by national laws, but also by two special new sources of law — computer code (lex informatica) and special customs of cyberspace (lex electronica). Regulation by codes and special customs, which are concentrated on the Internet, gradually form a supranational law of cyberspace. Since the law, algorithmic code, and special customs of cyberspace are different sources of law, the point of view of those researchers who write about the decline of legal regulation and its replacement by code regulation is unfounded. It is premature to conclude that the law is dying out in the transition of contractual relations to cyberspace. Lawrence Lessig’s expression "Code is law" is correct in the sense that code is only one possible source of law.