Introduction

The idea that the law can do all the work in creating the right kind of environment for the development and application of new technologies is unrealistic. The power of the law to confine and channel conduct is limited. If the law is to succeed in rising to the challenges presented by today’s emerging technologies, it needs some cultural assistance. Or, to put this another way, if we are to understand the effectiveness of law, just as if we are to have an effective understanding of law, we need to set its rules, doctrines and decisions in the larger context of the regulatory environment.

In this chapter, having dealt with some terminological matters, we introduce the general idea of a regulatory environment and the particular idea of a regulatory mode or modality. To earth and to illustrate these ideas, we then sketch three particular environments in which the regulatory role of law is fairly low-key. These are the regulatory environments that we find at UK Biobank, for the use of eBay, and for the development and sustainability of Wikipedia. In each of these cases, it is clear that informal community norms play an important part in shaping the conduct of the parties.