A Painful Divorce: Law vs Digital Technologies

In this article we wish to point out – using the metaphor of a marital crisis – some of the reasons behind the growing conflict between digital technologies and the law. We identify various causes: a) Over the last years there has been a radical change in roles: once one looked at the law for solutions, now they are searched in digital technologies, seen as very efficient instruments of governance. b) Legal instruments are inadequate to cope with a henomenon in constant evolution, and whose economic and socio-political weight is immense. c) Digital actors have become the most effective law makers, with rules not only prescriptive but directly executable. Our conclusions are that: a) The digital has changed international relations. We see digital empires” and “digital colonies”: the EU has gradually fallen in the latter category. b) The EU approach, expressed by thousands of normative provisions, is ineffective and will be counter-productive in respect of its objectives. c) It would be preferable to adopt a “general principles” model able to govern not only the present issues but also the changes expected in the next years.