ABSTRACT
Following the pattern of the benchmarks of legitimacy as represented by the three-tiered understanding of regulatory responsibilities, and as then embedded in an extended articulation of the Rule of Law, each part of the triple licence sets its own conditions for the use of technological measures. Now it is sometimes said that we need to have a new social contract or compact for the application of modern technologies, and the triple licence might be presented as just such a contract or compact. However, it needs to be understood that the first element of the licence is fundamental to each and every community’s contract; this is a non-negotiable standard term. Accordingly, in principle, the fundamental values of Community A might be quite different to Community B and again to Community C, and the practical accommodations in Community A might also be different to those reached in Community B and again in Community C.
