ABSTRACT
Most lawyers share the prevailing legal conception in which command, obedience and repression appear as essential attributes of law, and according to which positive law is the only possible form of public order. As a consequence, they are generally reluctant to consider private, alternative means to overcome legal problems as being part of what they call law. The Internet, however, is a direct and obvious challenge to the tradition of legal positivism. Not only does the new economy make apparent the limits of traditional, centralized forms of lawmaking, but, more fundamentally, it allows for the emergence of a new, decentralized process through which individual actors themselves develop and experiment rules, practices and solutions which help them face the problems posed by electronic transactions.
