Law and Change: Law in Times of Crisis

If living law is a reality, then law changes society and society changes law. More than ever, there is a need to critically examine law’s regulatory relevance. Digital transformation has undermined conventional IP rights. The courts have overturned some of the more pernicious labour arrangement in gig economies. The power of tech giants consistently challenges anti-competition restrictions. Climate changes makes urgent demands on environmental law. These and other crisis phenomena, like the exigencies of COVID-19, have led to seismic shifts in the delivery of legal services and the administration of justice. This series is committed to promoting and publishing theoretical, critical, doctrinal and frontier research around law as a change agent and the forces at work that are and will be changing law as we know it.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is touted as the remedy for many of the economic, social, political and cultural contentions in an epoch where social demographics are unbalance, economic growth is slowing, labour markets are fragile, and global trade is wracked with protectionism. The arrival of the pandemic heightened calls for AI and big data to help innovate economies out of the worst. This transition presents significant challenges for the ecosystems of law firms, and the requirements of due process in the exercise of litigation. Against the realisation of seismic shifts brought about by current and impending global watersheds, this series reflects how present and inevitable future crises will change the law, and how law can be understood as a change agent, talking to today in upheaval, and to new tomorrows.

The series provides a space for scholars, educators, practitioners and leaders to share their contributions on the present and future relevance of the law and reflect on law and change, and change through law in times of global crises. The subject matter encouraged in this series is spread over the widest scholarly and applied locations for law in action. The contributions will be critical, focusing on contemporary challenges to social ordering and global sustainability where law in context has much to say. In addition, the series will question law’s regulatory relevance across a wide range of substantive and procedural fields currently facing transition.

Please contact the Series Editor, Mark Findlay ([email protected]), to submit proposals.