Governing the Metaverse: Law Order and Freedom in Digital Space

SCRIPT and Crime, Justice and Society Seminars present 

Governing the Metaverse: Law Order and Freedom in Digital Space by Professor Mark Findlay 

Discussants, Dr Morshed Mannan and Dr Andy Aydın-Aitchison 

Professor Mark Findlay talks on his recent book in which he examines social ordering and governance in the digital universe. The book demonstrates how attempts to enact regulations in virtual spaces cannot replicate laws and market arrangements in the real world, advocating for an alternative ‘new law’ to enable safe, sustainable and beneficial digital communities. Mark discusses how this ‘new law’ could be achieved and the challenges it might face, addressing ideas of inclusive and collaborative governance, digital self-determination and communal bonding in virtual spaces. He outlines the differences between the metaverse and ‘realspace’ which call into question conventional legal reasoning and appreciations, rethinking current reductive paradigms of the virtual universe as an outpost for private property and exchange markets. Governing the Metaverse ultimately explores the notion of law as an enabler of change rather than an enforcer of the status quo and emphasises the potential of this more adaptable interpretation of the law to create an empowering digital world.