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Abstract:
Laws can promote, delay or prevent innovation. With regard to digitalisation and the development of artificial intelligence, fundamental legal policy questions are currently being raised as to whether legislation should set the course for future development at an early stage or whether it is better to allow development to run its course as freely as possible and then intervene with legislation in a targeted manner where undesirable effects occur that need to be corrected. This current challenge is not new. We also encounter it in legal history. Consider issues of economic and environmental law. Where legislation imposes high barriers on new technologies, the willingness to innovate is limited due to costs and risks. The expansion of transport routes in Europe took place at very different speeds, not least because of different legal frameworks. The same applies to the use of hydropower and canal construction. Where economic cooperation was prohibited for protectionist reasons and detailed production regulations applied, guild-based trade was limited to pure reproduction for many decades. Legal systems that did not recognize joint-stock companies hindered the growth of private companies because they lacked the equity financing function of joint-stock companies. Adherence to antiquated border regimes and customs regulations hampered foreign trade in many countries. The introduction of causal liability led to greater security for the population, but at the same time created higher risks for the introduction of new technologies. Price fixing and control of supply (monopoly rights) were intended to serve the supply of goods to the population, but hampered trade. There are many other examples relating to human rights, labour law, contract law (e.g. iustum pretium), copyright and patent law, etc. This issue aims to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of legal regulation for economic and technological innovations of all kinds in a legal-historical context. The editors welcome contributions from all relevant fields of science with a maximum length of 200,000 characters. Contributions should be submitted by using rechtskultur@ur.de within 31. August 2027. All contributions will be peer-reviewed, and admittance for publications rests on the merits of the contribution alone.
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