The Normative Order of the Internet: A Theory of Rule and Regulation Online

Abstract

Online anarchy? Far from it: as this study convincingly shows, norms matter online. In a tour de force, internet law expert Matthias C. Kettemann analyses the genesis, ontology, and legitimation of rule and rules on the internet. Innovatively, the study establishes the emergence of a normative order of the internet, an order that integrates norms materially and normatively connected to the use and development of the internet at three different levels (regional, national, international), of two types (privately and publicly authored), and of different character (from ius cogens to technical standards). Centrifugal forces contribute to normative redundancies (“normative froth”), real conflicts of norms between regulatory layers and geographically bounded normative spheres (“normative friction”), substantial structural problems (“normative fractures”), and political, commercial, and technological fragmentation of the internet. But these forces of normative disorder can be countered. As the study impressively shows, a normative turn has taken place on the internet. The rules on rule-making that have developed within the normative order of the internet explain, predict, and legitimize the creation of new norms through processes of self-learning normativity. These norms are then assessed for their internal coherence, consonance with other order norms, and consistency with the order’s finality. The normative order of the internet is based on and produces a liquefied system characterized by self-learning normativity. Thus a theory of normativity (“of the law”) that goes back to Kant needs to be fundamentally rethought: with norm-based self-organization as the principle of life that enables the transcendental constitution of normativityon the internet.