Overview

Invocations of ethics in legal, policy and academic discourses about the governance of digital technologies such as the European Union's strategy on Artificial Intelligence (AI), recall traditional debates in legal philosophy about the relationship between law and morality. Since ethics has acquired an institutional dimension with dedicated advisory bodies, expert groups and committees, new dynamics have, however, emerged in these debates. Its discourses address the relation between law and morality not, like in the past, within the field of legal theory or jurisprudence, but from the perspective of this institutionalized ethics, which is reflected in new kinds of relations drawn between law and ethics. By comparing traditional and contemporary debates on this theme and emphasizing the importance of institutional and procedural aspects of the rule of law, the book highlights some undesirable consequences emerging from the institutionalization process and discursive practices of digital ethics, including the delegitimization of citizens by expert-based initiatives and the lack of the checks and balances guarantees of traditional rulemaking.

Full Product Details

Author:   Niels van Dijk (Professor of Legal Philosophy and Legal Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Brussels) ,  Simone Casiraghi (Doctoral Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Brussels)
Publisher:   Edinburgh University Press
Imprint:   Edinburgh University Press
ISBN:  

9781399534970

ISBN 10:   1399534971
Pages:   160
Publication Date:   31 May 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Digital Ethics as a New Site for the Law-Morality Debate? 1.1. Taking Institutionalized Ethics Seriously? 1.2. Structure of the book 1.3. Approach: Problematization in Legal Theory 1.4. Scope and limitations 2. Discourses on Natural law and Legal Positivism 2.1. The Tribunal of Conscience & International Law 2.2. Human Survival & Civil War 15 2.3. Individual Freedom & Revolution 2.4. Ethical Legislation, Sovereign Obedience & The Tribunal of (Legal) Science 2.5. Courts, Genocide & Immoral Laws 2.6. Societal Morality & Legal Enforcement 2.7. Concluding Remarks 3. The Ethification of Innovation Governance 3.1. The Institutionalization of Ethics 3.2. Marking the Boundaries with Law 3.3. Contrasting Legal (and Moral) Theory and Digital Ethics 3.4. Concluding Remarks 4. Ethical rule-making beyond the Rule of Law? 4.1. Expertise and representation 4.2. Checks and balances 4.3. Rule of Law and institutional procedures 5. Conclusion: A New Site for Problematizing Law and Morality Bibliography

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Author Information

Niels van Dijk is Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels Simone Casiraghi is a Researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels

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