Captured by Digitization: Algorithms, Law, and Media.

Abstract

While digitization claims to provide efficiency, accessibility, expansion, speediness, and profit accumulation, it is actually colonizing every human activity. It has even become a purpose in itself. In this essay we focus on the digitization of legal practices and contents. We describe what digitization encompasses, how digitalization processes work, and to what extent they are able to replace juristic processes and produce legal outcomes. We are inspired by Walter Benjamin's essay on the influence of mechanical reproduction of the works of Art. Parallel to Benjamin's work on Art, we will analyze Law and the consequences of innovations such as mechanical mass (re)production and computerized digitization.