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Chapter 4 - Network Technology and the Law

Broadening Our Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2025

Christoph B. Graber
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
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Summary

Chapter 4 critically examines how the ECtHR has conceptualised the technological conditions of freedom of expression in its case law. The ECtHR’s practice only superficially acknowledges differences between the various technological media, treating technology as a ‘black box’ rather than analysing in depth the interactions between the technological medium and the process of receiving and transmitting information. While this may have been unproblematic in the age of the press and broadcasting, it needs to be revised now that the Internet is the leading medium, requiring a shift in perspective from legal doctrine to the social sciences. Correspondingly, this chapter reviews two leading approaches to the relationship between technology, society and law: the media theory of law and STS. The media theory of law provides a remarkable general explanation of how the historically dominant means of information dissemination influence the law, but takes an uncritical view of the technology involved and underestimates normative social structures in the digital environment. In contrast, the strength of STS lies in its use of detailed case studies involving complex interactions between society and materiality/technology via the concept of co-production, but offers a dissatisfactory treatment of the role of law.

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