ABSTRACT
One of the disruptive effects of technological developments is to offer regulators options other than the use of rules. Such is the nature of the disruption to Law 2.0 that encourages the emergence of Law 3.0. To be clear, the focus of the second disruption is not on the deficient content of prevailing legal rules, or on gaps, but on the availability of new technological instruments that can be applied for regulatory purposes. The take-up of technological tools can be charted on a spectrum running from soft to hard. At the soft end of the spectrum, the technologies are employed in support of the legal rules. Digital rights management is a clear example of the way in which manufacturers of digital products can code desired restrictions into the product itself. With the technological disruption of Law 2.0, the turn to technical solutions by private parties is likely to provoke a similar mentality in public regulators, and vice versa.
