Information Technologies and the Collective Subject of Law

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of a collective subject in the conditions of the spread of digital communications. The classification of collective subjects is a definite problem for legal science. There are social, political, and economic collective entities. A collective entity exists under the following conditions. Firstly, there should be a possibility of constant communication between the members of the team. Secondly, the team conducts one or more types of common activities. Thirdly, the team members participate in the development of directions and ways of future activities. Fourth, they can directly or indirectly influence decisions on the choice of one of the proposed options for future activities. The spread of digital communications significantly increases the connectivity of large teams. There is a possibility of existence of geographically distributed collective entities, whose members are located in different countries. The research method is based on the analysis of changes in the ways of communication between individuals who make up a collective subject. Digital networks allow for discussions (including those protected by cryptography), voting, foresight, the use of digital signatures, and automatic logging of all communication. Compared to telephone communication, digital communications allow the simultaneous participation of hundreds of people (collective chat). The speed of e-mail transmission is thousands of times higher than the speed of written messages. The new tools allow for video conferences with demonstrations of graphic and tabular materials. Voting using secure protocols and digital signatures is possible. There are decision support systems, computer models (digital doubles) of objects that need to be managed to make decisions. All this leads to a significant change in the quality and effectiveness of collective subjects. New types of collective actors (virtual communities) are emerging, which ultimately influence events in the real world. Legal science needs to start studying the processes of digitalization and comprehend their theoretical significance for jurisprudence.