Real Rights in the Virtual World
Human Rights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality
Published on 22. May 2026
Book
Hardback
258 pages
978-1-0353-3884-9 (ISBN)
Description
This timely book explores the rights and principles that guide AI-based applications and their users in virtual reality worlds. Riku Neuvonen and Jukka Viljanen examine the next developmental phase of information networks, positioning human rights at the centre of their analysis.
Chapters assess the current problems facing the digital world as well as new challenges posed by virtual worlds, including access to information and privacy. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the authors evaluate digital constitutionalism in AI-populated metaverses, the roles of language rights and intellectual property in the metaverse, and generative AI's impact on autonomy, truth and equality. Ultimately, they bring innovative research topics and ideas to the forefront of human rights studies in the age of virtual reality and AI.
Students and scholars of human rights law, internet and technology law, and digitalisation will find Real Rights in the Virtual World an invaluable read. It is also a highly informative resource for policymakers and journalists working in AI, the internet and other virtual worlds.
Chapters assess the current problems facing the digital world as well as new challenges posed by virtual worlds, including access to information and privacy. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the authors evaluate digital constitutionalism in AI-populated metaverses, the roles of language rights and intellectual property in the metaverse, and generative AI's impact on autonomy, truth and equality. Ultimately, they bring innovative research topics and ideas to the forefront of human rights studies in the age of virtual reality and AI.
Students and scholars of human rights law, internet and technology law, and digitalisation will find Real Rights in the Virtual World an invaluable read. It is also a highly informative resource for policymakers and journalists working in AI, the internet and other virtual worlds.
Reviews / Votes
'Even after the metaverse hype, virtual worlds remain important as key information domains and communication spaces of the future. Real Rights in the Virtual World offers real insights for virtual communication ecosystems. Throughout its twelve contributions, the volume helps understand which rights can be easily applied, which rights are more challenging to "virtualize" and which rights have to be reimagined. This is essential reading for anyone wishing to navigate, research, or regulate virtual worlds - an important collection put together by two renowned scholars of digitality on virtual worlds with real scholarly impact.' -- Matthias C. Kettemann, University of Innsbruck, Austria and Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, GermanyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0353-3884-9 (9781035338849)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Edited by Riku Neuvonen, Professor of Public Law, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University and Jukka Viljanen, Professor of Public Law, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Finland
Content
Contents
1 Introduction to real rights in virtual worlds 1
Riku Neuvonen and Jukka Viljanen
PART I VIRTUAL REALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
2 Real rights in virtual worlds 12
Riku Neuvonen and Jukka Viljanen
3 Digital constitutionalism in AI-populated metaverses 31
Juan Diego Arregui Acosta, Edoardo Celeste and Victor
Henriquez Diaz
4 Intellectual property in the metaverse: when a virtual force
meets an intangible object 52
Philippe Jougleux
5 Language rights in the metaverse: the implications of
translingual metaverse communication 70
Maarit Koponen, Rui Sousa-Silva and Antonio Pareja-Lora
6 Virtual public spaces 90
Riku Neuvonen
PART II LEGAL SUBJECTS IN VIRTUAL WORLDS
7 The experience of virtual worlds - believability, immersion,
and embodiment 107
Jean Du Toit and Wian Erlank
8 Rights for daemons: the question of legal personhood 126
Siina Raskulla
9 Generative AI's impact on autonomy, truth and equality: three
regulatory quagmires for the proto- and the metaverse 154
Bart van der Sloot
PART III VIRTUAL WORLD AND FUTURE TRENDS
10 Rules for virtual worlds: reconciling contexts and perspectives 170
Joanna Kulesza and Eneken Tikk
11 The continuum of real and virtual human rights: a theoretical,
conceptual, and doctrinal approach to connecting human
rights, future generations, and the virtual world 196
Anu Mutanen
12 Explorative futures of the metaverse: relations, contradictions,
and future folds 226
Toni Ahlqvist, Mikkel Knudsen and Amos Taylor
1 Introduction to real rights in virtual worlds 1
Riku Neuvonen and Jukka Viljanen
PART I VIRTUAL REALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
2 Real rights in virtual worlds 12
Riku Neuvonen and Jukka Viljanen
3 Digital constitutionalism in AI-populated metaverses 31
Juan Diego Arregui Acosta, Edoardo Celeste and Victor
Henriquez Diaz
4 Intellectual property in the metaverse: when a virtual force
meets an intangible object 52
Philippe Jougleux
5 Language rights in the metaverse: the implications of
translingual metaverse communication 70
Maarit Koponen, Rui Sousa-Silva and Antonio Pareja-Lora
6 Virtual public spaces 90
Riku Neuvonen
PART II LEGAL SUBJECTS IN VIRTUAL WORLDS
7 The experience of virtual worlds - believability, immersion,
and embodiment 107
Jean Du Toit and Wian Erlank
8 Rights for daemons: the question of legal personhood 126
Siina Raskulla
9 Generative AI's impact on autonomy, truth and equality: three
regulatory quagmires for the proto- and the metaverse 154
Bart van der Sloot
PART III VIRTUAL WORLD AND FUTURE TRENDS
10 Rules for virtual worlds: reconciling contexts and perspectives 170
Joanna Kulesza and Eneken Tikk
11 The continuum of real and virtual human rights: a theoretical,
conceptual, and doctrinal approach to connecting human
rights, future generations, and the virtual world 196
Anu Mutanen
12 Explorative futures of the metaverse: relations, contradictions,
and future folds 226
Toni Ahlqvist, Mikkel Knudsen and Amos Taylor