How Will Technology Dictate The Future Of Law And Economics?

The technology essentially refers to a set of human adjustments centering about technics and techniques, around tools, implements, instruments, and machines, and bounded by skills which may be mechanical, symbolic, or organizational. (1) The blurring lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres of global production systems and the current pace of technological development is exerting profound changes in the way people live and work. It is impacting all disciplines, economies, and industries, production as well as delivery.

With the whole world so closely connected, everything, from individual to information, travels faster. Consumers expect their products to be of superior quality as they saw on the internet. Governments also expect their citizens to be more secured than the other “well-connected” nations. And thus, the transformative potential of technology in law and economics is widely recognized.

THE IMPACT ON ECONOMICS

It is undoubtedly true that technology is rapidly changing and such advancement tends to remove the barriers, social or economical among people. When the internet has coerced us to use “slangs” instead of words, the change in behaviour patterns of people due to the internet does not come off as a shock.

The impact of technology on economics is wide and distributed in various sectors. Various benefits had accrued to production and consumption not simply from adopting the technology, but from adapting to technology. Technological innovation and economic growth are intricately linked and this has caused the machinery to develop, the production to rise and the consumption to inflate.

Technology will cause the production to become huge in number and superior in quality while keeping the efficiency and effectiveness intact. With the demand for goods of superior quality rising, the supply chain has to keep up.

However, it is an undeniable fact that technology has contributed to the increasing centralization of power in various areas. Large areas of the industrial and agricultural economy will be specially trained and made accustomed to the technical methods of large-scale mass production and mass distribution leading to a situation of more productivity for less money. The widening gap between the rich and poor and between different regions is bound to suffer.

Technology demands change and change demands more change. This poses another threat to the business community as well as the economy since, new technology may develop a new industry but destroy an existing one, which lacks the resources to upgrade itself.

There is already an exorbitant rise in the need of computer experts and every job has upgraded to become more or less intellectual. Technological unemployment, the loss of jobs due to technical changes has become an intimidating danger for people in the conventional job structure. And in the future, the situation regarding this may get worse.

Such shortcomings need to be dealt with and those who are harmed in the short term by disruptive innovation should not be ignored, but the innovations must also keep on growing. The institutions and researchers should be encouraged to find our innovative technologies which could make the country self-relevant and reduce vulnerability but the inclusion of people from all areas and skills must be included and the indigenous resources must be used to the full extent.

THE IMPACT ON LAW

The advances in technology revolutionize today’s legal landscape all over the world. It has impacted every aspect of the legal field, from the law firm and corporate practice to courtroom operation and document management.

Many new law firms have come on the "network" with innovative websites and legal blogs to flourish their revenue and to express their legal opinion on the current issues. There is a growing trend to outsource the manual work of typing or citing or even proofreading to AI-based firms and this trend will take over the entire legal fraternity in the future.

Already computer programs have developed to fill trademark and patents and various government documents have also loosened their grip on the "paper" work. With the technology upgrading every day and courts taking cognizance of environmental issues, e-filings of petitions will also become quite favourable.

Simple things like scanning of legal documents have become easier and the time is not far when we will have the technology to frame personalized contracts and point out probable legal issues in a specific person's business. McKinsey also estimates that 23% of work done by lawyers can be automated by existing technology. (2) In addition to this, it has also been said that advances in AI-enabling technologies, such as semantic algorithms and new machine learning capabilities, enable natural language processing systems to understand and extract entities, facts, and relationships from complex contracts. (3)

Working remotely in legal firms has also made things easier for various professionals and technology like video conferencing and online editing of documents has made it convenient for the budding lawyers to not be scared of their 9-5 job. This has also helped during situations like lockdown and international meetings.

With new platforms emerging, legal research and legal teaching have become smarter. Online certification courses have also become very commercial and have the capability to replace law schools in the coming years.

CONCLUSION

Technology has taken over every aspect of our daily life and the emerging technologies present exciting opportunities but one needs to take note that they also present uncertainty. Technology is intertwined with both, law and economics. Economics and Law need technology and vice versa. Innovation in technology will help in the growth of both these arenas but every growth needs policy control and effective implementation and that is what the government must keep in mind.

[Madri Chandak, a student of Hidayatullah National Law University is in her second year and has a keen interest in the economic and commercial aspects of the law.]

Disclaimer: This article is an original submission of the Author. Niti Manthan does not hold any liability arising out of this article. Kindly refer to our Terms of use or write to us in case of any concerns.

1. Richard E. Bell, The impact of Technology on Economic Growth, 16 American Journal of Economics and Sociology 281, 281-282 (1957)
2. Abigail Hess, Experts say 23% of lawyer's work can be automated, CNBC, (Apr. 9, 2020, 3:15 PM) https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/06/technology-is-changing-the-legal-profession-and-law-schools.html
3. Bruce Orcutt, Three Technologies transforming the legal field, Law Technology Today, (Apr. 9, 2020 10:04 PM) https://www.lawtechnologytoday.org/2018/07/3-technologies-transforming-legal/