Towards a Legal Methodology of Digitalization: The Example of Digital Copyright Law

Digital technologies have not only changed the foundations for our economic, social and cultural life. They have also challenged our basic notions about “law”. This contribution argues that in order to deal with the fundamental challenges from digitalization a new framework for a legal methodology of digitalization needs to be developed to guide regulators, decision-making bodies and private legal actors in their adoption, application and governance of rules of information law. Using EU copyright law as an exemplary example, four methodological shifts of general importance and rising out of digitalization are identified: a) from substantive law to procedural law; b) towards globalization; c) towards horizontally-based law; and d) from state-enacted law to contract and code. Moving forward, these shifts should inform discussions about a legal methodology of digitalization.