Year: 2016
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This paper considers how autonomous machines govern work in networked societies, and what this might mean for the future of legal regulation. The peer economy in particular presents a series of key regulatory challenges, as it enables an increasing proportion of individuals to transact outside of firms and other relatively stable institutions (Benkler, 2006; Coase, 1937). So, for example, Uber, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, and similar platforms accelerate and exacerbate an ongoing shift away from employment as the dominant form of organising production. These platforms organise production in ways that were not possible in the industrial and postindustrial ages in which much of our law has developed. In this paper, we suggest that the way that production is governed by automated machines acting through decentralised communications networks has the potential to wreak havoc with a series of legal rules that make legal responsibility conditional on certain defined relationships of control. We focus first on the way in which work itself is regulated, and how workers are protected from exploitation and risk. We then expand upon this frame to examine how these changes impact on citizens more broadly – including rules that prohibit discrimination, consumer protection rules, and other laws where the target of regulation has historically been the firm.
Author: Nicolas Suzor
Language: English
Topic: Legal and Labor Studies
Subfield: Industrial relations
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2579464257