Reading Group "Dignity, Digitality, Dystopia: Selected Readings in the Law and Theory of Technology and Society - Einzelansicht

No single comprehensive theory of online order exists to date. This is noticeable. Existing regulatory approaches to the Internet suffer from a lack of theoretical grounding. They may be pragmatic, even successful, but are they sustainable? Do they cohere with the Internet order’s goals? Through selected readings we will study the potential of theoretical approaches to solving three key normative crises on the Internet: normative froth (too many norms, e.g. on AI and ethics), normative friction and fractures (conflicts between national legal orders and between public and private legal orders) and technical fragmentation (challenges to the integrity of the Internet by states wishing for more control over Internet resources). Key theories of order in the broader sense will be distilled from the readings and discussed. Though the majority of these theories were not posited with a view to the internet, the course will draw from their epistemic potential for the regulation of the internet. Theories (and key representatives of that theory) include systems theory (Luhmann/Teubner), constitutionalization/global constitutionalism (Pernice), transnationalism (Viellechner, Calliess), legal pluralism (Seinecke), multi-normativity (Forst), network theory (Vesting), interoperability theory (Palfrey, Gasser, Weber), massive online micro justice (De Werra), conflict studies (Mueller), and infrastructuralization (DeNardis).

(1)       Tu 14 Apr        18-20              On the Independence of Cyberspace         

Read

• A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow (p. 5) and any two other articles in

• [1] Duke Law & Technology Review 18 (August 2019), Special Symposium Issue, Special Editor: James Boyle: The Past and Future of the Internet: A Symposium for John Perry Barlow 

(2)       Tu 21 Apr        18-20              Theory as World-Making

Read

• [2.1.] Kettemann, The Normative Order of the Internet. A Theory of Rule and Regulation Online (Oxford: OUP, 2020), chapter 5;

and one of the following:

• [2.2.] Thomas Schultz, Carving up the Internet: Jurisdiction, Legal Orders, and the Private/Public International Law Interface, EJIL (2008), Vol. 19 No. 4, 799–839;
• [2.3.] Gunther Teubner, Constitutional Fragments: Societal Constitutionalism and Globalization
 (2012), Oxford Scholarship Online;
• [2.4.] Nico Krisch, Pluralism in International Law and Beyond, forthcoming in Fundamental Concepts for International Law: The Construction of a Discipline (Jean d’Aspremont & Sahib Singh, eds.) (2020).

(3)       Tu 28 Apr        18-20              Concepts as Epistemic Signals

Read

• [3.1.] Thomas Poell, David Nieborg and José van Dijck, Platformisation. Internet Policy Review, 8(4) (2019);
• [3.2.] Ulises A. Mejias and Nick Couldry, Datafication. Internet Policy Review, 8(4) (2019); and
• [3.3.] Laura DeNardis, Internet Points of Control as Global Governance, CIGI Internet Governance Papers, Paper No. 2 (August 2013).

(4)       Tu 12 May      18-20              Algorithmic Governance

Read

• [4.1.] Christian Katzenbach and Lena Ulbricht, Algorithmic Governance, Internet Policy Review 8 (2019) 4

and one of the following:

• [4.2.] Florian Saurwein, Natascha Just, Michael Latzer, Governance of algorithms: options and limitations, info 17 (2015) 6, 35-49;
• [4.3.] Natascha Just and Michael Latzer, Governance by algorithms: reality construction by algorithmic selection on the Internet, Media, Culture & Society 39 (2017) 2, 238–258;
• [4.4.] Joshua A. Kroll et al., Accountable Algorithms, University of Pennsylvania Law Review (165) (2017), 633.

(5)       Tu 19 May      18-20              Normative Ordering

Read

• [5.1.] Robert M. Cover, Foreword: Nomos and Narrative, Harvard Law Review 97 (1983) 1, 4-68 (especially 4-35); and
• [5.2.] Kettemann, The Normative Order of the Internet. A Theory of Rule and Regulation Online (Oxford: OUP, 2020), chapter 6.

(6)       Tu 26 May       18-20              Privatization 

Select two or three chapters from

• [6.1.] Nicolas P. Suzor, Lawless. The secret rules that govern our digital lives (Cambridge: CUP, 2019), part II; 

and read

• [6.2.] Matthias C. Kettemann/Wolfgang Schulz, Setting Rules for 2.7 Billion: A (First) Look Into Facebook’s Norm-Making System. Results of a Pilot Study.

 (7)       We 27 May     16-18              Constitutionalization

Read

• [7.1.] Ingolf Pernice, Global Constitutionalism and the Internet. Taking People Seriously, HIIG Discussion Paper Series, Discussion Paper Number, 2015-01, 10 March 2015; and
• [7.2.] Eduardo Celeste, Digital constitutionalism. Mapping the constitutional response to digital technology’s challenges, HIIG Discussion Paper Series 2018-02.

If you are particularly interested, read

• [7.3.] Ralf Michaels, The Re-State-Ment of Non-State Law: The State, Choice of Law, and the Challenge from Global Legal Pluralism, The Wayne Law Review  51 (2005), 1209

Unit     Date                Time                Topic

(1)       Tu 5 May        18-20              Law and Theory of Technology and Society           

(2)       Tu 21 May       18-20              Systems Theory, Pluralism, Multi-Normativity

(3)       Tu 19 May       18-20              Network Theory and Infastructuralization

(4)       Tu 26 May      18-20              Normative Ordering and Right to Justification

(5)       Tu 3 June       18-20              Algorithms and Norms

(6)       Tu 10 June     18-20              Privatization of Justice

(7)       Tu 17 June     18-20              The Power of Theory in Shaping Digitality