Joined at the hip: Technology and law evolve together

Just as the Industrial Revolution reshaped the legal system, so will artificial intelligence

- RAHUL MATTHAN

There is a long-standing view that law is part of the natural order of society. Thinkers like Aristotle and Cicero believed human laws mirrored the laws of nature. Hobbes claimed that society itself was made possible by law, while Locke argued that legal norms arose from a moral order preceding them. Yet, in practice, much of what governs us today has not evolved from timeless principles, but in continual response to technology and the disruptions it introduces.

The Industrial Revolution led the first major transformation of society on the whole. It replaced human power with mechanical and spawned a number of macro-inventions that changed how society operated. As machines replaced human labour, the accidents and injuries they caused forced common law courts to re-evaluate doctrines that had worked so far in a pre-industrial agrarian context.

Nowhere is this more visible than in common law, which has repeatedly evolved in response to technological upheaval. Where it used to impose near-automatic liability for harm caused by a person's actions, after industrialization it adopted the principle of fault-based negligence, requiring plaintiffs to prove a breach of 'duty of care' to hold defendants liable. In time, the 'duty of care' principle was extended to protect individuals holding manufacturers liable for injuries caused to consumers, even if they had no direct contract with them.