Smell test: sphere transgressions and counter-transgressions in legal dispute resolution

ABSTRACT

The article applies the critical lens of sphere transgression to the field of law, with a particular focus on legal dispute resolution. The engagement of technology corporations with dispute resolution is described in terms of either facilitation or disruption, depending on whether the corporations aim at modernizing the existing justice system, or substituting it with their own adjudicative institutions. The article argues that, while facilitation can be understood as a transgression of technology into the sphere of law, disruption ultimately amounts to a counter-transgression of law into the sphere of digital goods. These observations help illustrate the usefulness of sphere transgression as a critical lens.

KEYWORDS:

• Sphere transgression
• law and technology
• content moderation
• online dispute resolution
• digitalization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pietro Ortolani

Pietro Ortolani is a Professor of Digital Conflict Resolution at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He holds a law degree from the University of Pisa and a Ph.D. in arbitration from LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome.