The essay examines the normative transformation of private law in a technological age permeated by novel regulatory arrangements that emerge beyond the traditional frameworks of state-centred normativity, with particular attention to prospective developments. Normative evolution unfolds through processes of regulatory autopoiesis within transnational socio-technical networks, giving rise to forms of private normativity produced by the interaction of economic interests, technical standards, computational protocols and organizational practices. The erosion of the centrality of codified law - undermined by globalisation processes - gives way to the functional primacy of distributed networks operating according to a logic that privileges systemic functionality over normative reflexivity. The liquefaction of law materialises in the disintegration of the boundary between norm and fact, prescription and description, shifting towards predictive modelling and algorithmic correlation, whereby legal norms are transformed into probabilistic thresholds, dynamic parameters and continuously redefined risk criteria.
Social Metamorphosis and Normative Autopoiesis: Beyond the Realm of Private Law
G. Fontana
2026-01-01
Abstract
The essay examines the normative transformation of private law in a technological age permeated by novel regulatory arrangements that emerge beyond the traditional frameworks of state-centred normativity, with particular attention to prospective developments. Normative evolution unfolds through processes of regulatory autopoiesis within transnational socio-technical networks, giving rise to forms of private normativity produced by the interaction of economic interests, technical standards, computational protocols and organizational practices. The erosion of the centrality of codified law - undermined by globalisation processes - gives way to the functional primacy of distributed networks operating according to a logic that privileges systemic functionality over normative reflexivity. The liquefaction of law materialises in the disintegration of the boundary between norm and fact, prescription and description, shifting towards predictive modelling and algorithmic correlation, whereby legal norms are transformed into probabilistic thresholds, dynamic parameters and continuously redefined risk criteria.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
