Law and Society in the Digital Age: Legal Challenges and Social Transformation

Abstract

Classical foundations that underpin modern legal systems bounded territoriality, recognizable actors and a relatively stable technological base have been under threat from the swift spread of digital technologies, namely the internet, mobile devices, platform intermediaries and, most recently, artificial intelligence. This paper explores the connection between law and digital technology in the modern world on both sides; not only as the regulating institution in the context of technological change but also as an institution itself reshaped by technology. The paper outlines six main legal issues in the digital age data protection, cybercrime, artificial intelligence governance, platform regulation and intermediary liability, jurisdiction and digital sovereignty, and IP and four trends of socio-legal processes these map onto: digital inclusion, reorganization of work, public discourse, and reconstitution of identity, community online. The paper will utilize recent regional figures on the internet's penetration, overall costs of cybercrime and a comparison of the timelines of the different regulations in the region to suggest that economies in this region end up in a unique position: Asia-Pacific has the largest online population in the world, and their regulation in the digital world is far from even. The paper ends with policy recommendations to move towards a more responsive, proportional and regionally coordinated legal structure for digital governance.