Abstract
This chapter forms the introduction to part I of this volume. It explores the notions of natural language and computer code in relation to law. After explaining the role of natural language in the constitution of legal norms and the provision of legal certainty, the nature of computer code is explored, raising the issue of how computer code contributes to the constitution of our world. Finally this chapter introduces the two strands of research that inform part I of this volume: (1) artificial intelligence and legal subjectivity and (2) legal and technological normativity.
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Notes
- 1.
The concept of an intentional stance was coined by (Dennett 2009). Though I do not endorse his physicalism, his idea that we take an intentional stance towards entities to achieve a measure of predictability is salient and contributes to a better understanding of how we deal with ‘others’. As he indicates, we attribute ‘mind’ to others. This links with Parson’s and Luhmann’s concept of the double contingency that is the result of me guessing how others are guessing the meaning of my words and actions (Vanderstraeten 2007).
- 2.
Kittler (1997) at 1/8 and 3/8 of the text that is available at: http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=74, last accessed 18th October 2012.
- 3.
Appendix A, available at: http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html, last accessed 18th October 2012. This appendix is not part of the article that was published in Computer Networks and ISDN Systems.
- 4.
Manovich (2008: 6) refers to the introduction to the very first Software Studies Workshop, organized by Mathew Fuller at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. In the introduction Fuller wrote: ‘Software is often a blind spot in the theorization and study of computational and networked digital media. It is the very grounds and “stuff” of media design. In a sense, all intellectual work is now “software study”, in that software provides its media and its context, but there are very few places where the specific nature, the materiality, of software is studied except as a matter of enigneering.’
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Hildebrandt, M. (2013). Prefatory Remarks on Part I: Law and Code. In: Hildebrandt, M., Gaakeer, J. (eds) Human Law and Computer Law: Comparative Perspectives. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6314-2_1
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