Digital Justice
Technology, Impartiality and the Law
Will be published approx. on 31. October 2026
Book
Hardback
306 pages
978-1-009-86418-3 (ISBN)
Description
How is the authority of law challenged by digital technologies? Is the digitisation of law an appropriate means to achieve legal impartiality? This book provides an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the impact of the ongoing digital transformation of legal systems. Digital law differs from traditional law in that it relies on decision-support software and networked databases. Such mechanisms must be understood not only in technical terms but also in their social and historical dimensions: the computational foundations of digital law should be situated within the long history of the mechanisation of writing. Digitalisation constitutes a graphic revolution which, in the legal domain, transforms the very conditions of impartiality. Whereas the legality of traditional legal systems is grounded in territorial sovereignty, digital law is no longer anchored in a sovereign territory. It not only increasingly transcends established borders, but also dispenses with the spatial embeddedness that has underpinned legal authority. Digital legality must therefore be reconceptualised to consider how automated systems may be integrated into the social space within which law operates.
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approx. 10/2026
Cambridge University Press
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Persons
Antoine Garapon, Ph.D., is a retired judge. Former director of the Institute for Judicial Studies and member of the Commission investigating sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, he now chairs the Commission for victims' reparations. A prolific author, he has written extensively in French and Italian on judicial rituals, comparative law and the de-spatialisation of justice. Jean Lassegue's research examines the philosophical foundations of computer science (Turing, 1998) and its transformative impact on the nature of knowledge, ranging from scientific inquiry to legal theory (with Giuseppe Longo L'empire numerique, 2025). He also explores the evolving intersection of computing and law (with Antoine Garapon Justice digitale, 2018; Le Numerique contre le Politique, 2021).
Content
Part I. Epistemology of Digital Justice: 1. Steps towards a graphical revolution; 2. The limits of computation; 3. Spatial vs. non-spatial legality; 4. Three legal trends in the graphical revolution; Part II. Sociology of Digital Justice: 5. A total social fact; 6. Revisiting natural law in the age of digitalisation; Part III. Anthropology of Digital Justice: 7. The fourth dimension of the hearing; 8. Inanimate judges, where are your souls?; 9. A predictive function?; 10. When law disappear; 11. Judgments under influence; 12. The myth of delegation to machines; Part IV. Ethics of Digital Justice: 13. Improving human ability to produce human justice; Conclusion; Glossary; Index.