Global Technology and Legal Theory

The rise and spread of the Internet has accelerated the global flows of money,technology and information that are increasingly perceived as a challenge to thetraditional regulatory powers of nation states and the effectiveness of their constitutions.The acceleration of these flows poses new legal and political problemsto their regulation and control, as shown by recent conflicts between Google andthe European Union (EU). This book investigates the transnational constitutional dimension of recentconflicts between Google and the EU in the areas of competition, taxation andhuman rights. More than a simple case study, it explores how the new conflictsoriginating from the worldwide expansion of the Internet economy are being dealtwith by the institutional mechanisms available at the European level. The analysisof these conflicts exposes the tensions and contradictions between, on the onehand, legal and political systems that are limited by territory, and, on the otherhand, the inherently global functioning of the Internet. The EU's promisinginitiatives to extend the protection of privacy in cyberspace set the stage for abroader dialogue on constitutional problems related to the enforcement of fundamentalrights and the legitimate exercise of power that are common to differentlegal orders of world society. Nevertheless, the different ways of dealing with thecompetition and fiscal aspects of the conflicts with Google also indicate the samelimits that are generally attributed to the very project of European integration,showing that the constitutionalization of the economy tends to outpace the constitutionalizationof politics. Providing a detailed account of the unfolding of these conflicts, and their widerconsequences to the future of the Internet, this book will appeal to scholarsworking in EU law, international law and constitutional law, as well as those in thefields of political science and sociology.