Technology New Trajectories in Law

Placing contemporary technological developments in their historical context, this book argues for the importance of law in their regulation. Technological developments are focused upon overcoming physical and human constraints. There are no normative constraints inherent in the quest for ongoing and future technological development. In contrast, law proffers an essential normative constraint. Just because we can do something, does not mean that we should. Through the application of critical legal theory and jurisprudence to pro-actively engage with technology, this book demonstrates why legal thinking should be prioritised in emerging technological futures. This book articulates classic skills and values such as ethics and justice to ensure that future and ongoing legal engagements with socio-technological developments are tempered by legal normative constraints. Encouraging them to foreground questions of justice and critique when thinking about law and technology, the book addresses law students and teachers, lawyers and critical thinkers concerned with the proliferation of technology in our lives.

1. Stories of Technology: The Role of Legal Thinking in Shaping Techno-Legal Worlds 2. Historical examples of law and technology: civil law, criminal law, slavery and colonialism 3. Balance of power and pushing back through the rule of law 4. Big Tech, The Corporate Form, and Self-Regulation 5. Critical Legal Theory and Encountering Bias in Tech

Penny Crofts is Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney. Honni van Rijswijk is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney.