From Regulatory Lag to Regulatory Foresight: Reforming Legal Systems for Technological Disruption

Abstract

Fast changing of technology has produced a growing gap between law and technology, in which the legal control is running behind technology. Whereas law is retaliatory, the new technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, biotechnology, and autonomous vehicles, develop in a proactive way and present complex challenges. They are intellectual property rights, privacy, liability, cross-border performance, and ethical uncertainty. Poor time lag in legislation, lack of technical expertise and jurisdictional issues worsen the situation. Possible solutions to such gaps include regulatory sandbox, technology foresight, sunset clauses, and micro-directives. Legal professionals need to be trained interdisciplinarily and interacted with experts on a constant basis. To control the multinational technological development there is the need to have global coordination. Active and adaptive systems are capable of defending rights and also facilitate innovation. Reactive to anticipatory governance should be altered in order to make sure that law is up-to-date with the societal and technological advancements.