Law and the Information Society: Challenges and Adaptations
Law
Representation of the Goddess Justice shows her equipped with three symbols of law: the sword symbolizing the state’s coercive power, the balance representing the balance between the rights of litigants, and the blindfold representing fairness. [1]
The law is the order, policy, and institutional behavior in society inspired by principles of justice, drawing on existing social relations that determine its content and character. In other words, laws are behaviors directed to the enforcement of rules governing social and intersubjective coexistence to settle conflicts.
Information Society: A Risk Society
In practice, the information society has changed the scope of the law due to the convergence of new technologies. The challenge is to adjust legal doctrine to the new information society and create a dynamic right with the times.
The legal and social interests remain the same: to protect individual and social rights to ensure a stable human society under fair and democratic political systems. However, the scope of rights has changed, and new areas have emerged requiring a new legal approach to protect the individual from the growth of the Information Society, which is characterized by:
- Modified workforce distribution, with an increase of professionals dedicated to information use and a decrease in agricultural workers.
- Reduced working day due to time and location flexibility offered by new ICTs.
- Shift from traditional production of goods and services to manipulating symbols that create and process information.
- Power linked to information and knowledge (not land or industry) to generate innovation and efficient production.
- Significant technological innovations in all areas.
New technologies or ICTs have revolutionized human life and behavior, shortening distances, reducing time, and expanding knowledge frontiers.
The new ICTs have opened immense possibilities for information and knowledge exchange, changing private, commercial, cultural, and social habits. Proper application and use of these technologies contribute to solving many problems of human life in the twenty-first century, improving quality of life.
Doubts and fears arise regarding the risks in today’s society: How do new technologies and the explosive exchange of data affect rights of privacy or preservation of our privacy? What are the real risks? What is gained and what is lost? How to protect individual privacy in an environment of ongoing data accumulation?
Information Society and Human Rights Frontiers
The relationship between the Information Society and Human Rights is that the application of new technologies makes the borders of Human Rights comprehensive and precise, seeking greater protection for humans.
Human Rights evolve with societal aspirations, acquiring new forms in line with the times.
The Information Society presents both promises and realities of implementing new technologies, as well as risks and threats.
These risks and threats mainly affect Human Rights. New ICTs have introduced common threats requiring the extension of human rights protection.
What human rights are violated by improper use of new technologies, and what are the new frontiers of human rights?
The Right to Privacy, in its classical conception, has been eroded by the technological revolution.
The privacy of individuals and the environment are most affected by progress, leading to privacy issues and a struggle for survival.
This necessitates understanding and analyzing the new challenges to the law.
New Challenges of Law
Law and Information Society
Constantly changing social reality challenges existing law, raising issues that constitute new challenges for law as a regulatory instrument of human relations.
The rapid development of science and technology poses challenges for the law as a regulatory instrument due to the emergence of new conflicts affecting individual interests.
Law is conceived as an instrument that regulates social behavior to ensure human interests.
Computer Revolution and Legal Revolution
The Information Society is characterized by the massive use of ICTs to disseminate knowledge and exchange. In this technological environment, society develops into a new form, affecting the State, citizen-State relations, organizations, production systems, trade, and knowledge creation and dissemination.
The transformation of society due to the technological revolution has led to the creation and recreation of law, generating a legal revolution.
The computer phenomenon has affected ten branches of law:
- Public International Law: Trans-border data transmission
- Private International Law: Different nationalities of parties, varying laws and jurisdictions, international nature of software products
- Constitutional Law: Privacy and personal data protection
- Administrative Law: Procurement of government computer goods and services, electronic funds transfer
- Criminal Law: Violation of trade secrets, fraud, or theft by software tools
- Labour Law: Employment procedures and occupational diseases
- Civil and Commercial Law: Hiring of computer services, databases, technology supply contracts
- Industrial Law: Specific legal instruments for software
- Procedural Law: Evidentiary value of computer records
The Information Revolution has led to new legal disciplines studying and applying informatics in law, such as Computer Law, Documentary Legal Informatics, Legal Information and Management Control, and Legal Expert Systems.
The Law of Information Technology regulates computer phenomena in society, consisting of laws, rules, and principles applicable to Computer Science.
Computer Law
Changes in the Information Society due to new technologies necessitate a specialized body of law, Computer Law, to prevent or resolve conflicts.
Computer Law is a set of legal rules, preventive and corrective, regarding the use of information technology.
The legislature must consider:
- Informational regulation of goods: Software requires legal treatment due to its economic character.
- Protection of personal data: Against attacks on fundamental rights caused by improper handling of personal information.
- Legal regulation of the Internet: To promote or restrict data movement across national borders.
- Intellectual Property and Information Technology: Protection of computer programs and regulation of domain names.
- Cybercrime: Punishing unlawful acts using computers.
- Computer Contracts: Due to their unique contractual category with economic impact.
- Electronic Commerce: Automated marketing of goods and services.
- Business aspects of computing: Labor problems raised by computerization (e.g., telecommuting).
- Probative value of modern information media: Difficulty in the acceptance and assessment of evidence derived from these carriers in courts.
Need for Personal Data Protection
Improper use of information technology fundamentally affects personal privacy, considered a new form of injury to privacy requiring immediate legal reaction.
Protecting personal data prevents the use of computers from damaging the honor or privacy of individuals.