Subjectivity as the Main Scientific Problem of “Digital Law”: Development of a Hypothesis

Abstract

Digital law is a polysemous phrase widely used in contemporary legal studies. From the point of view of analytical jurisprudence, its central meaning is defined by the “pervasive digital technologies” (artificial intelligence, distributed ledger systems, etc.). Doctrinal understanding of the problems of digital law requires the identification of a universal problem, as which the article proposes as a hypothesis the problem of agency in the broad sense of the word. The approach can be argued deductively and inductively. From the deductive point of view, agency is the central problem of the general filed of the philosophy of law and, as such, it should also be seen in specific fields of knowledge. From the inductive point of view, in the main specific problems of certain “pervasive digital technologies” there is a common feature of their connection with the problem of agency, which is demonstrated in the article on the basis of the technology of artificial intelligence. Confirmation of the hypothesis of subjectivity as the main problem of digital law (or an academic convention regarding such a hypothesis) will mean the existence of a general doctrinal principle to be taken into account in various forms of law-making and lawenforcement activities in cases where the formal-legal method cannot be applied due to objective circumstance.