The Rule of Law "by Design"?
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LAW REVIEW
VOL. 95 MAY 2021 No. 5
The Rule of Law By Design?
Monika Zalnieriute,* Lyria Bennett Moses,t
and George Williams4
Can technology be deployed to promote, or even guarantee, the rule of law? Can the rule
of law be designed into technological systems? The idea of achieving legal objectives through
technology by design is not new. However, it has been vividly revived in debates around
systems such as blockchain, which has been proclaimed as the killer app for corruption. I
Other technologies have been used to modernize elections, with claims of improved
transparency and reduced human error and fraud. Panoptic governance mechanisms such as
China's Social Credit System promise perfectly predictable, consistent, and equal enforcement
of the law. Technology thus is increasingly presented as a toolfor fostering rule of law values-
a rule of law by design. In this Article, we ask whether technological solutions that embed
rule of law values do in fact promote the rule of law. Using case studies and analyzing current
developments, we explore the extent to which the promise of technologies as a means of
delivering on the rule of law hold up in practice and what they mean for the idea of a society
ruled by law.
* © 2021 Monika Zalnieriute, Senior Lecturer and Australian Research Council
Discovery Early Career Award Fellow (project number DE210101183) at Faculty of Law and
Justice, UNSW Sydney; Lead ofAI and Law research stream at Allens Hub for Technology,
Law and Innovation, UNSW Sydney; Associate Investigator at Australian Research Council
Centre of Excellence Automated Decision-Making and Society, m.zalnieriute@unsw.
edu.au.
t © 2021 Lyria Bennett Moses, Director, Allens Hub for Technology, Law and
Innovation; Professor, Faculty of Law and Justice, UNSW Sydney.
$ © 2021 George Williams, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Planning and Assurance;
Anthony Mason Professor and Scientia Professor, UNSW Sydney. The authors thank Nayan
Bhathela for research assistance.
1. Laura Shin, New Initiative Aims to Eliminate Corruption with Blockchain
Technology, FORBES (June 20, 2016, 8:00 AM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/
06/20/new-initiative-aims-to-eliminate-corruption-with-blockchain-technology/?sh=293b1
8a01a01309 [https://perma.cc/B4QU-F5NK].
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