Humanism is ingrained in contemporary Western law. There are many connections between humanism and law that relates both to method, such as Mos gallicus legal humanism during the Renaissance, as well as the legal formalisation of humanist guidelines for fundamental liberties, general law principles and Human Rights.
Questioning and updating humanist values in response to digital technology issues has become a necessity. If the humanist utopia of knowledge access seems to only be a click away, the legal and structural barriers remain numerous.
Yet, the law is changing to block full-on attacks on humanism caused by, for example, the meeting point between shaping and expressing one's will, or hybridising the human body with equipment and the “Internet of Things”.
Faced with these developments, humanist values must be actively protected from a legal perspective, which is difficult to reconcile with the neutral regulation of online business activities.
- Should we preserve the legal precedents of humanism, or rethink fundamental rights within a new landscape
- What role does mankind's innate reasoning play when making decisions that are computer-assisted or depend on an algorithm?
