Law, technology, and the butterfly effect
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18316/2318-8081.16.14Keywords:
Law and technology, Legal Change, Legal Culture.Abstract
Exploring the insight of the butterfly effect from chaos theory, this article shows how technological transformation influences legal change. The argument is developed from a sociological and a historical perspective, comparing and contrasting social customs since the seventeenth century until today and showing the transformation of criminal offenses. In societies with a strict moral code, adultery, fornication, and sodomy were sexual crimes, even if victimless. After the sexual revolution, these conducts are no longer criminal. Explaining this phenomenon, the article identifies the change of attitude towards human nudity as an important factor and considers this change of legal culture to be a consequence of technological innovations related to personal hygiene, public health, and cleanliness. The taboo against nudity persisted because bathing was not considered healthy and there were no separate bathrooms in residences until the end of the nineteenth century. Examining nudism, the possibility of divorce and human rights protection, the article emphasizes the role of technology for the cultural revolution, and of culture for legal change. Another interesting example of the relationship between law and technology comes from the development of the automobile industry and the emergence of a series of laws to regulate exhaustively individual transportation. Moreover, the invention of antibiotics altered the expectation of the sick individuals who expect to be cured and, as a consequence, affected also the practice of torts and civil liability. The flap of wings of various butterflies led to the current setting.
Â
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who submit their manuscripts for publication in the “REDES” Magazine agree to the following terms:
The authors claim to be aware that they retain copyright by giving “REDES” the right to publish.
The authors declare to be aware that the work submitted will be licensed under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution License which allows article sharing with acknowledgment of authorship and publication in this journal.
The authors declare to be aware that by virtue of the articles published in this journal have free public access.
The authors declare, under the penalty of the law, that the text is unpublished and original and that they are aware that plagiarism has been identified, plagiarized authors will be informed - willingly, to take legal action in the civil and criminal sphere - and, plagiarists will have their access to the magazine blocked.
The authors state that - in case of co-authoring - all contributed significantly to the research.
Authors are obliged to provide retractions and (or) corrections of errors in case of detection.
The authors are obliged not to publish the text submitted to “REDES” in another electronic journal (or not).
The Electronic Journal Law and Society - REDES - is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.Based on work available at "http://revistas.unilasalle.edu.br/index.php/redes/about/submissions#copyrightNotice".
Permissions in addition to those granted under this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/.