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Murray, Andrew D. --- "Mapping the rule of law for the internet" [2017] ELECD 867; in Mangan, David; Gillies, E. Lorna (eds), "The Legal Challenges of Social Media" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 13

Book Title: The Legal Challenges of Social Media

Editor(s): Mangan, David; Gillies, E. Lorna

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785364501

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Mapping the rule of law for the internet

Author(s): Murray, Andrew D.

Number of pages: 22

Abstract/Description:

Since its inception as a stand-alone topic of scholarship in the 1990s, cyberlaw has been a study in regulatory theory. We have discussed systems of regulation and tools of regulatory enforcement. We have divided groups into techno-determinists and libertarians/communitarians and we have discussed effectiveness and legitimacy. The missing element of much cyberlaw study has been the law element. We have focused too extensively on the cyber and too little on the law. This chapter seeks to rebalance and refocus cyberlaw on the key element, the jurisprudential structure of cyberlaw, in particular to examine the question of the rule of law (or its absence) in cyberspace. In so doing it seeks to form the foundations of a cyberlaw jurisprudence by asking some difficult normative questions: Can a rule of law exist online? If so who is the legitimate lawmaker and what values are enshrined by cyberlaw? Keywords: rule of law; cyberlaw; jurisprudence; jurisdiction