The Law and Technology Enterprise: Uncovering the Template to Legal Scholarship on Technology

Abstract:     
This article explores the founding commitments of legal scholarship about technology. Through a detailed analysis of three discrete law and technology literatures — space law scholarship from the 1950-1960, IVF and law scholarship from 1970-1980 and virtual worlds and law scholarship from the 2000s — a common template for legal writing on technology, the "law and technology enterprise," is identified. This template narrows how law has engaged with technology. Through exposing the positivistic commitments to description and to law as the handmaiden to public policy, it is suggested that more sophisticated understandings of the law and technology interface can emerge.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 59

Keywords: law and technology, space law, IVF and law, virtual worlds and law

Accepted Paper Series