Law in the Era of Digitalization

Abstract

This article analyzes the current trends in the development of law in the digital age. The authors noted the high importance of the changes taking place in society and the existence of the need to take them into account for proper adjustment, improvement of the current legislation. Special attention is paid to the disclosure of problems arising in the process of legal regulation of neural networks, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Since these phenomena are relatively new and do not have a generally accepted understanding, the article compares the approaches, theories, concepts of various scientists aimed at revealing their essence. It also describes the main advantages and disadvantages of the approaches, outlines the author’s views on the solution of the issues raised and the meaning of key concepts, categories of the topic. On this basis, and considering the most important essential, legal features of the objects under study, the author develops and formulates recommendations for improving the current legislation, including those related to filling in certain regulatory gaps and adjusting subordinate regulatory legal acts of a strategic and conceptual nature. At the end of the article, arguments are given about the weak degree of knowledge of neural networks, artificial intelligence from the standpoint of jurisprudence, the author’s approach to solving the issue of the legal personality of robots is justified, the forecast of the development of legislation in the foreseeable future is argued.