IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlawss/v12y2023i3p40-d1135891.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thomas Aquinas, Ronald Dworkin, and the Fourth Revolution: The Foundations of Law in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Author

Listed:
  • Kyle Lauriston Smith

    (College of Theology, Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, AZ 85017, USA)

Abstract

Since the publication of Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism , the strategies of Surveillance Capitalists and appropriate responses to them have become common points of discussion across several fields. However, there is relatively little literature addressing challenges that Surveillance Capitalism raises for the foundations of law. This article outlines Surveillance Capitalism and then compares the views of Thomas Aquinas and Ronald Dworkin in four areas: truth and reality, reality and law, interpretation and social custom, and virtue and law; finally, it closes by asking whether the law alone can provide a sufficient response to Surveillance Capitalism. The overarching argument of the article is that, while Aquinas’s view of the foundations of law accounts for and responds to the challenges of Surveillance Capitalism more effectively than Dworkin’s, law alone cannot provide a sufficient response to this emerging phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • Kyle Lauriston Smith, 2023. "Thomas Aquinas, Ronald Dworkin, and the Fourth Revolution: The Foundations of Law in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism," Laws, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-27, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:40-:d:1135891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/12/3/40/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/12/3/40/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hal R. Varian, 2010. "Computer Mediated Transactions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 1-10, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. İ. Akçomak & Lex Borghans & Bas Weel, 2011. "Measuring and Interpreting Trends in the Division of Labour in the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 435-482, December.
    2. Alaimo, Cristina & Kallinikos, Jannis & Vallderama-Venegas, E, 2020. "Platforms as service ecosystems: lessons from social media," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101474, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Zhihua Lai & Bifeng Wang & Xiang He, 2023. "Research on the Digital Transformation of Producer Services to Drive Manufacturing Technology Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-21, February.
    4. Renatas Kizys & Christian Pierdzioch, 2013. "A note on decoupling, recoupling and speculative bubble: some empirical evidence for Latin America," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(13), pages 1057-1065, July.
    5. de Montjoye, Yves-Alexandre & Ramadorai, Tarun & Valletti, Tommaso & Walther, Ansgar, 2021. "Privacy, adoption, and truthful reporting: A simple theory of contact tracing applications," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    6. Gábor Lovics & Katalin Szõke & Csaba G. Tóth & Bálint Ván, 2019. "The Effect of the Introduction of Online Cash Registers on Reported Turnover in Hungary," MNB Occasional Papers 2019/137, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary).
    7. Tuhkuri, Joonas, 2016. "Forecasting Unemployment with Google Searches," ETLA Working Papers 35, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    8. Castell, Carolin & Kiefer, Jasmin & Schubach, Sebastian & Schumann, Jan H. & Graf-Vlachy, Lorenz & König, Andreas, 2023. "Integrating digital platform dynamics into customer orientation research: A systematic review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    9. Theodore Pelagidis & Eleftheria Kostika, 2022. "Investigating the role of central banks in the interconnection between financial markets and cryptoassets," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(3), pages 481-507, September.
    10. Rizov, Marian & Vecchi, Michela & Domenech, Josep, 2022. "Going online: Forecasting the impact of websites on productivity and market structure," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    11. Hossfeld, Oliver & Röthig, Andreas, 2016. "Do speculative traders anticipate or follow USD/EUR exchange rate movements? New evidence on the efficiency of the EUR currency futures market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 218-225.
    12. Candel Haug, Katharina & Kretschmer, Tobias & Strobel, Thomas, 2016. "Cloud adaptiveness within industry sectors – Measurement and observations," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 291-306.
    13. Yang Liu & Yaojun Fan & Yifan Wang & Jiayu Huang & Hu Xun, 2024. "City innovation ability and internet infrastructure development: Evidence from the “Broadband China” policy," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(1), pages 121-146, January.
    14. Thomas Niebel & Fabienne Rasel & Steffen Viete, 2019. "BIG data – BIG gains? Understanding the link between big data analytics and innovation," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 296-316, April.
    15. de Reuver, Mark & Sørensen, Carsten & Basole, Rahul C., 2018. "The digital platform: a research agenda," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 80669, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. İ. Akçomak & Lex Borghans & Bas Weel, 2011. "Measuring and Interpreting Trends in the Division of Labour in the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 435-482, December.
    17. Hana Choi & Carl F. Mela, 2019. "Monetizing Online Marketplaces," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(6), pages 948-972, November.
    18. Shuai Liu & Guoxin Jiang & Le Chang & Lin Wang, 2022. "Can the Smart City Pilot Policy Promote High-Quality Economic Development? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on 239 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-17, November.
    19. Rose, Andrew K. & Spiegel, Mark M., 2012. "Dollar illiquidity and central bank swap arrangements during the global financial crisis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 326-340.
    20. Yann Braouezec, 2015. "Public versus Private Insurance System with (and without) Transaction Costs: Optimal Segmentation Policy of an Informed monopolistPublic versus Private Insurance System with (and without) Transaction ," Working Papers 2013-ECO-23, IESEG School of Management, revised May 2014.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:40-:d:1135891. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.