"Digisprudence: Code as Law Rebooted"

Laurence Diver

Edinburgh University Press
276 pages
Future Law
Published December 2021

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-digisprudence-code-as-law-rebooted.html

PDF disponibile in open access

Reboots the debate on ‘code as law’ to present a new cross-disciplinary direction that sheds light on the fundamental issue of software legitimacy

    Reinvigorates the debate at the intersection of legal theory, philosophy of technology, STS and design practice
    Synthesises theories of legitimate legal rulemaking with practical knowledge of code production tools and practice
    Proposes a set of affordances that can legitimise code in line with an ecological view of legality
    Draws on contemporary technologies as case studies, examining blockchain applications and the Internet of Things

Laurence Diver combines insight from legal theory, philosophy of technology and programming practice to develop a new theoretical and practical approach to the design of legitimate software. The book critically engages with the rule(s) of code, arguing that, like laws, these should exhibit certain formal characteristics if they are to be acceptable in a democracy. The resulting digisprudential affordances translate ideas of legitimacy from legal philosophy into the world of code design, to be realised through the ‘constitutional’ role played by programming languages, integrated development environments (IDEs), and agile development practice. The text interweaves theory and practice throughout, including many insights into real-world technologies, as well as case studies on blockchain applications and the Internet of Things (IoT).

1. Introduction
The Structure of the Argument
Rebooting ‘Code as Law’
Aspiring to Legitimacy in Code
‘Code as Law’, Code Versus Law, or Something Else?
Concluding

Part I: Computational Legalism and the Rule(s) of Code

2. A Design Perspective: Code Is More Than Law
Affordance
Infusing Code with Normativity

3. A Legal Philosophy Perspective: Code is Less Than Law
What is Legalism?
Computational Legalism
Conclusion

Part II: What Makes a Good Rule?

4. Criteria for Laws
Normative Criteria for Law-Making: the Aspirations of Legality
Conclusion

5. Criteria for Code
Input and Output Legitimacy in Code
Input Legitimacy
Conclusion

Part III: Legitimating Code: Theory and Practice

6. The Digisprudential Affordances
Assessing Decisions, Or Assessing Design?
Mapping the Criteria
From Characteristics To Affordances
Conclusion

7. Operationalising Digisprudence
The Programmer of the Programmer
Agile Development
Integrated Development Environments
Code and Natural Language
Conclusion

8. Rebooting Code as Law: Conclusions and Next Steps
The Contemporary Relevance of Digisprudence
Next Steps?
Concluding Thoughts