This book offers a radically different introduction to law, one that reflects the challenges and opportunities presented by the rapid technological developments of our time.
This book offers a radically different introduction to law, one that reflects the challenges and opportunities presented by the rapid technological developments of our time.
Traditionally, law has been about historic principles and rules and their application to a particular set of facts; and courts, judges, and disputes have been central to the legal enterprise. Against this approach, this book highlights four radical and revisionist ideas: by bringing modern technologies into the foreground; by presenting law as one particular mode of governance in a larger picture of governance that now includes technological modalities; by insisting that we have to think outside the traditional doctrinal box to engage with a broad range of governance questions; and by emphasizing that human communities cannot flourish without good governance to which both lawyers and law are central. These four radical threads are woven into a discussion of the modern landscape of law, and together they offer a distinctly contemporary contribution to the quest for good governance. The challenge for lawyers now, the book maintains, is to contribute to thinking, both locally and globally, about how we take advantage of the opportunities presented by the newest technology, without compromising the essential conditions for human life and co-existence, and without losing what we value in laws governance.
This book is aimed at students who are studying Law at university and Legal academics, and others, interested in the current and future impact of technology on law.
1. Introducing Law Part One: A Radical Introduction
2. Four Radical
Threads
3. Law as Civilising
4. Law as Governance
5. Law as Rules: Thinking
Inside the Box, Thinking Outside the Box
6. Law in our Technological Times
Part Two: Legal Landmarks
7. The Landscape of Law: Legal London
8. Thinking
Like a Lawyer
9. Handling Statutes
10. Handling Cases Part Three: Key
Concepts
11. The Concept of Law
12. Coherence
13. The Rule of Law
14. The
Regulatory Environment
15. Organising Concepts
16. Flexible Concepts
17.
Prohibitions, Permissions, and Requirements18. Rights, Duties and Powers
19.
Crime and Punishment, Harm and Liberty
20. Property
21. Precaution and
Prevention Part Four: Values
22. Fundamental Values: The Conditions of
Possibility
23. Community Values: Human Rights and Human Dignity
24. Privacy
25. Consent
26. Justice
27. Ethics
28. Conscientious Objection and Civil
Disobedience Part Five: Laws Imperfect Governance and its Many Challenges
29. Laws Governance: The Range of Challenges
30. Laws Promise: Order,
Democracy, and Justice
31. Authority of Lawmakers and Respect for Law
32.
Getting Regulation Right: The Politicians Claim
33. Regulatory Effectiveness
34. Regulatory Acceptability and Legitimacy
35. Disputes: Resolution,
Prevention, and Technical Solutions Part Six: Lawyers and Legal Services
36.
Lawyers
37. The Automation of Legal Services and Social Acceptability
38.
Smart Lawyers and Smart Legal Institutions Part Seven: Final Reflections
39.
The Radical Threads Revisited
40. Good Questions and Good Governance
Roger Brownsword is Professor in Law at Kings College London, UK, and at Bournemouth University, UK. He is Honorary Professor at Sheffield University, UK, and Visiting Professor at City University Hong Kong.