89 M. Hildebrandt and J. Gaakeer (eds.), Human Law and Computer Law: Comparative
Perspectives, Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice 25,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6314-2_5, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract This article discusses the challenge posed by the upcoming field of techno-
regulation to the study of law and its relation to new technologies. Technoregulation is
often hailed as a new legislative tool for the intentional regulation of human behavior
by means of technology. Instead of making law redundant, technoregulation could give
a new impetus to classical debates in legal theory about the nature of law, by adding
questions about the medium of law investigated in the light of the practice turn. If one
understands law as a practice, what does this mean for the distinction between medium
and content, which seems to underlie much of the debate on technoregulation? Both
Hartian practice theory that frames law as a system of ‘incorporeal’ rules and more
material approaches that explain law in terms of its mediality are analyzed. These will
be discussed in the light of Latour’s studies of the specificities of legal practices and
technological practices, which seem to supersede the extremes assumed by both.
Chapter 5
A Bump in the Road. Ruling Out Law
from Technology
Katja de Vries and Niels van Dijk
K. de Vries (*) • N. van Dijk
Interdisciplinary Research Group on Law Science Technology and Society (LSTS),
Faculty of Law, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
e-mail: edevries@vub.ac.be; nvdijk@vub.ac.be
The authors would like to thank Sebastian Abrahamsson for his
salient comments.