On Emerging Technologies: The Old Regime and the Proactivity

Abstract

Nowadays, emerging technologies are revolutionizing nearly every facet of human life, shaping legal, cultural, political, and technological landscapes. Despite various breakthroughs, emerging technologies have also brought to society legal and regulatory challenges, such as the pacing problem, regulatory silos, and the black box issue. However, existing state-centric regulation on emerging technologies results in fragmented, inconsistent, and ineffective statutes and policies. The traditional regulatory regime, due to its reactive mindset, incremental approaches, and tools of modest efficacy, fails to mitigate associated risks and harms, sometimes even impeding technological innovation. To tackle this dilemma, this Article proposes a proactive law approach with a forward looking orientation. This Article seeks to usher in proactivity into the realm of emerging technologies regulation and enrich the connotation of proactive law with interconnected new governance mechanisms. Through this exploration, this Article calls for a paradigm shift in the regulatory mindset, embracing regulation as a dynamic, adaptive, and collaborative process, better angled for the transformations brought by emerging technologies. Proactive regulatory layers and strategies will be delineated and scrutinized in this Article, as well as more nuanced solutions to the relevant legal and regulatory challenges.

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