This edited collection explores the disruptive effects of technology on law: in particular, the challenge presented to regulators as they strive to manage the transition from one technological state to another (such as the transition from analogue to digital or from fossil fuels to green renewables) and the opportunities (and challenges) presented as regulators transition from traditional rule-based legal governance to governance that relies on new technologies and tools.

It brings together nine papers, eight of which were published in the journal Law, Innovation and Technology (between 2009 and 2022) and the ninth of which was a TELOS conference paper that was given at King’s College London in 2023.

These papers are presented in three sets, each set reflecting a particular theme for discussion within the broad field of law, regulation, and technology. The organising ideas are: law in context; ‘law in context’ becoming ‘law in a technological context’; disruptive technologies and their impact on law; the regulatory challenge presented by technological transition; and the challenges and opportunities presented by a transition in the mode of governance, from rules to tools.

Timely and forward-looking, this collection makes important inroads into broadening the field of legal study by placing law not simply in context but in, what is now, a technological context.

Roger Brownsword has been an academic lawyer for more than 50 years, currently having professorial positions at King’s College London, UK, and Bournemouth University, UK. His books (most recently, The Future of Governance: A Radical Introduction to Law) are known throughout the English-speaking world, and he also has publications in Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese. He was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2004–2010) and Chair of UK Biobank’s Ethics and Governance Council (2011–2015); he has served on working parties in the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society; and he has acted as a specialist adviser to parliamentary committees on stems cells, cloning, and hybrid embryos.