Transformation of Legal Reality under the Impact of Digitalization

Abstract

The article examines the processes of digitalization of law, their causes, sources, driving forces, real and foreseeable consequences from a social constructivist perspective. Local experiences in the design and implementation of digitalization of criminal proceedings are described in detail, and expert assessments of the early successes and difficulties of digitalization in the sphere of rulemaking, law enforcement and law implementation in general are given. A counterpoint to the analysis of the processes of change in the legal reality, which takes place under the impact of its digitalization, is the hypothesis expressed in the literature about possible transformation of law into another social regulator or the birth of some hybrid form, which would include only certain elements of legal regulation. The article comments on the debate about the significance of digitalization for the essence of law as a social regulator. It considers the arguments of those who believe that the changes will lead to a radical transformation and the arguments of those who see these changes as merely technical details of law enforcement, not affecting its essence. Separate consideration is given to practical cases such    as the project aimed at digitalization of criminal proceedings in the UK  as well as experiments in digital, virtual and augmented reality in the   US (digital environment “META,” “virtual reality,” “reality+,” etc.). The philosophical and legal theoretical concepts of digitalization of law in the context of projects of total virtualization of reality and digitalization of social practices are critically analyzed.