DigiReg

Rule of Law through Digital Communication of Law

Funding: This is project 342115, funded under the Research Council of Norway's JUREVAL programme for 4 years (2023-2027).

Rule of Law through Digital Communication of Law, or Digital Regulation (DigiReg), is a normative project that aims at developing and improving rule of law through the digitalisation of law.

About the project

The project is project financed by the Norwegian Research Council for the period 2024-2027, headed by Professor Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde at the University in Oslo, in cooperation with colleagues in Vienna. The aim is to establish a network of scholars and practitioners with an interest in working on the digitalisation of law in the decade to come with a legal, humanist and social science approach.

Digital Regulation (DigiReg) is a normative project that through a legal, humanist and social science approach aims at developing and improving the rule of law through the digitalisation of law.

DigiReg is based on the idea that digitalisation of law has been ongoing for decades. However, the technology has up till now mainly been used to produce and distribute law, and not to make the increasing amount of law accessible. Rule of law depends on developing digital search methods and platforms for both the general public and legal experts.

The digitalisation of law poses similar challenges to law and society as the introduction of writing in law did in the 12^th and 13^th centuries, and the introduction of printing in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. These challenges are dealt with in different ways in different jurisdictions. Either way, it concerns the very methods we use to solve legal questions. DigiReg aims at framing the ongoing digitalisation of law by using legal historical, comparative and methodological approaches.

Background

DigiReg is headed by Professor Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde, and is situated at the Institute of Public and International Law at the University in Oslo, linked to the Research Group for Law, Society and Historical Change.

Funding

DigiReg is a four-year project financed by the Norwegian Research Council for the period 2024-2027. It will use the financing to host annual seminars and an annual PhD-school on digitalisation and law, and host guest professors in Oslo. The aim is to establish a network of scholars and practitioners with an interest in working on the digitalisation of law in the decade to come.

Collaborations

The project doesn't have any formal partners, although the main partners are Professor Iris Eisenberger at the Department for Innovation and Digitalisation of Law at the University in Vienna, and Professor Konrad Lachmayer at the Faculty of Law at the Sigmund Freud University.

For a general introduction (in Norwegian) to the ideas that DigiReg is based on, see the Aarebrot lecture in 2020 by Professor Sunde.