Legal Epistemology in the Times of Big Data

Is there a “Beruf unserer Zeit” in the times in which Big Data, Internet-of-Things, and Data Driven Innovation appear to be magic words that capture the attention of scientists, economists, sociologists and obviously also of jurist? Clearly – and by now thousands of pages demonstrate it – the main effort has been that of pouring the new digital wine in the age-old wineskins, mostly those of private law. But there appears to be a much more engaging task that requires to be, at least, pointed out, leaving to the slow meditation of legal doctrine its more deep analysis and framing. The question is if this relatively new technological scenario, which is growing at an impressive speed and which apparently cannot be stopped, changes the traditional epistemological bearing of lawyers, i.e the way they understand the world and offer legal tools for its best functioning.