the role of the third party.’ P Cortés Online Dispute Resolution for Consumers in the
European Union (Routledge 2011) 83–85.
66 G Kaufmann-Kohler and T Schultz, Online Dispute Resolution: Challenges for Contemporary Justice (Kluwer Law International 2004) 60.
67 J Hörnle, Cross-Border Internet Dispute Resolution (Cambridge University Press 2009)
74–86.
68 ibid 86–89.
69 Richard Susskind, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services (Oxford
University Press 2010) 99, 217–225.
70 Closer scrutiny of our tools provides a description of how legal practices have come to
be. The German media theorist Cornelia Vismann points this out in relation to files,
which have for centuries formed the foundation of legal practices. Files form the
information architecture for structuring legal work and influence how truth and
validity are built in legal practices. ‘Legal studies lack any reflection on their tools. Of
course, lawyers consult files to recapitulate past events. But they are of no interest in
themselves, and they certainly do not turn into objects of scientific investigation. Files
are the basis for legal work. Their validity resides in their truth value and their everyday
operations.’ See Vismann (n 36) 11.
71 Bower and Christensen (n 3).
72 David G Messerschmitt and Clemens Szyperski, Software Ecosystem: Understanding an
Indispensable Technology and Industry (MIT Press 2003) 361–363; for classification of
software ecosystems, see Slinger Jansen and Michael A Cusumano, ‘Defining Software
Ecosystems: A Survey of Software Platforms and Business Network Governance’ in
Slinger Jansen, Sjaak Brinkkemper and Michael A Cusumano (eds), Software Ecosystems. Analyzing and Managing Business Networks in the Software Industry (Edward
Elgar Publishing 2013).
73 The transition from foraging to agriculture signified unprecedented demographic
growth and revolutionised human societies. See Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, ‘When
the World’s Population Took Off: The Springborad of the Neolithic Demographic
Transition’ (2011) 333 Science 560.
74 For a critical overview of ‘newness’ of new media, see M Lister and others, New
Media: A Critical Introduction (2nd edn, Routledge 2009) 9–104.
75 Manuel Castells, The Power of Identity. The Information Age: Economy, Society, and
Culture Volume II (2nd edn, Wiley-Blackwell 2010) 319–320. Similarly, Lister et al.
state that ‘This apparent enthusiasm for the ‘latest thing’ is rarely if ever ideologically
neutral. The celebration and incessant promotion of new media and ICTs in both state
and corporate sectors cannot be dissociated from the globalising neo-liberal forms of
production and distribution which have been characteristic of the past twenty years.’
Lister and others (n 74) 11.
76 Vismann (n 36) xii–xiii.
77 McLuhan calls attention to the forms of technology through his assertion of the
medium as the message: ‘Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of
the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.’
Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore and Jerome Agel, The Medium Is the Massage. An
Inventory of Effects (Gingko Press 1967) 8.
78 Lister and others (n 74) 89.
79 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media. The Extensions of Man (McGraw-Hill
1964) 18–20.
80 ‘It is an apparently sophisticated technological determinism which has the significant
effect of indicating a social and cultural determinism: a determinism, that is to say,
which ratifies the society and culture we now have, and especially its most powerful
internal directions. For if the medium – whether print or television – is the cause, all
other causes, all that men [sic] ordinarily see as history, are at once reduced to effects.
Understanding law and technology 57
European Union (Routledge 2011) 83–85.
66 G Kaufmann-Kohler and T Schultz, Online Dispute Resolution: Challenges for Contemporary Justice (Kluwer Law International 2004) 60.
67 J Hörnle, Cross-Border Internet Dispute Resolution (Cambridge University Press 2009)
74–86.
68 ibid 86–89.
69 Richard Susskind, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services (Oxford
University Press 2010) 99, 217–225.
70 Closer scrutiny of our tools provides a description of how legal practices have come to
be. The German media theorist Cornelia Vismann points this out in relation to files,
which have for centuries formed the foundation of legal practices. Files form the
information architecture for structuring legal work and influence how truth and
validity are built in legal practices. ‘Legal studies lack any reflection on their tools. Of
course, lawyers consult files to recapitulate past events. But they are of no interest in
themselves, and they certainly do not turn into objects of scientific investigation. Files
are the basis for legal work. Their validity resides in their truth value and their everyday
operations.’ See Vismann (n 36) 11.
71 Bower and Christensen (n 3).
72 David G Messerschmitt and Clemens Szyperski, Software Ecosystem: Understanding an
Indispensable Technology and Industry (MIT Press 2003) 361–363; for classification of
software ecosystems, see Slinger Jansen and Michael A Cusumano, ‘Defining Software
Ecosystems: A Survey of Software Platforms and Business Network Governance’ in
Slinger Jansen, Sjaak Brinkkemper and Michael A Cusumano (eds), Software Ecosystems. Analyzing and Managing Business Networks in the Software Industry (Edward
Elgar Publishing 2013).
73 The transition from foraging to agriculture signified unprecedented demographic
growth and revolutionised human societies. See Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, ‘When
the World’s Population Took Off: The Springborad of the Neolithic Demographic
Transition’ (2011) 333 Science 560.
74 For a critical overview of ‘newness’ of new media, see M Lister and others, New
Media: A Critical Introduction (2nd edn, Routledge 2009) 9–104.
75 Manuel Castells, The Power of Identity. The Information Age: Economy, Society, and
Culture Volume II (2nd edn, Wiley-Blackwell 2010) 319–320. Similarly, Lister et al.
state that ‘This apparent enthusiasm for the ‘latest thing’ is rarely if ever ideologically
neutral. The celebration and incessant promotion of new media and ICTs in both state
and corporate sectors cannot be dissociated from the globalising neo-liberal forms of
production and distribution which have been characteristic of the past twenty years.’
Lister and others (n 74) 11.
76 Vismann (n 36) xii–xiii.
77 McLuhan calls attention to the forms of technology through his assertion of the
medium as the message: ‘Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of
the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.’
Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore and Jerome Agel, The Medium Is the Massage. An
Inventory of Effects (Gingko Press 1967) 8.
78 Lister and others (n 74) 89.
79 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media. The Extensions of Man (McGraw-Hill
1964) 18–20.
80 ‘It is an apparently sophisticated technological determinism which has the significant
effect of indicating a social and cultural determinism: a determinism, that is to say,
which ratifies the society and culture we now have, and especially its most powerful
internal directions. For if the medium – whether print or television – is the cause, all
other causes, all that men [sic] ordinarily see as history, are at once reduced to effects.
Understanding law and technology 57