Law Beyond Code: Technology and the Future of Normativity

This book explores one of the most pressing questions of our time: what happens to law when technological systems-algorithms, smart contracts, digital platforms-begin to regulate our lives as effectively as, or even more effectively than, traditional legal rules?While many scholars have framed this debate in terms of efficiency, compliance, and enforcement, this book takes a step back to ask a deeper question: what is law, and what distinguishes it from mere technological control?Through three interconnected essays, the book moves across theory, contemporary issues, and history.It critiques the popular thesis of the “death of law” under conditions of algorithmic regulation, arguing that law itself can be seen as a technology of a special kind.The book’s central argument is that technological regulation does not ‘perfect’ the law by guaranteeing compliance.Instead, it abolishes the normative dimension that defines law: the distinction between what is and what ought to be.When algorithms