如何理解网络规制中的“代码”?——兼评莱斯格《代码2.0》

How to Understand“Code”in Internet Regulation?—A Review of Lessig s Code Version 2.0

20世纪末,哈佛法学院莱斯格教授的《代码》提出的“代码即法律”(code is law)开风气之先,将技术视为网络规制的重要手段,并提示法律可以通过影响技术来实现规制。建立在这一洞见之上,莱斯格进一步提出网络规制“四要素”理论,即法律、架构、市场和社群规范共同规制网络空间。这一理论具有持续的学术生命力,并不断启发国内外网络规制的研究与实践。《代码》一书也随之成为网络法理论的经典著述,很多当代网络规制的分析和讨论,依然借助了莱斯格提供的分析视野和理论框架。当然,《代码》中代码规制的确切意涵和四要素之间的流变与转化,也在网络法学界引发了质疑和争论。距离《代码》出版已25年,早年互联网无政府主义思潮日渐式微,政府和技术巨头正在强化对互联网的控制,与此同时,代码本身由于人工智能技术的发展产生了新的转变,这些变化都对网络规制理论研究提出了新挑战。

At the end of the last century,Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig s“Code”initially raised the idea that“Code is law”,which regards technology as an important means of Internet regulation .Professor Lessig also suggested that the law can perform regulation by influencing technology .Based on this insight,Professor Lessig further proposed the theory of“four modalities”of Internet regulation,i .e .,law,architecture,market and social norms .This theory has continued to inspire research and practice of Internet regulation at home and abroad .The book“Code”has also become a classic work of Internet law theory,and many contemporary analyses and discussions of Internet regulation still rely on the analytical vision and theoretical framework provided by Professor Lessig .Of course,the exact meaning of code regulation in Internet and the flux and transformation between the four modalities have also triggered questions and debates in the Internet law research community .Twenty-five years after the publication of The Code,the idea of cyberanarchy of the early years of the Internet is declining,governments and technological giants are strengthening their control over the Internet,and at the same time,technology itself has brought about new transformations due to the development of artificial intelligence,all of which pose new challenges to the theoretical study of Internet regulation.