The doors of Janus: A critical analysis of the socio-technical forces eroding trust in the rule of law

The Rule of Law is neither just a principle nor solely the institutions that embody that principle, a critical aspect of the Rule of Law is its grounding in trust which often gets neglected in the surrounding discourse. When the citizens’ trust in the Rule of Law weakens, the Rule of Law becomes fragile. In this article we examine the impact of emerging technologies on the citizens’ trust in the Rule of Law. Our analysis is specifically focused on the effect of systemic disinformation which is likely to worsen with the advent of Generative AI, algorithmic misgovernance, and the digitalization of the social contract on the relationship between citizens and the Rule of Law. Through analysis of global techno-legal developments we demonstrate that new data-driven technologies are eroding the citizens’ trust in the rule of law by weakening the epistemic justifications of trust in the rule of law, belying expectations of good governance, and disrupting the temporal-spatial aspects of governance respectively. The issues raised in this article are both of contemporary relevance in view of the upcoming democratic elections across the world and also of long term significance in view of the declining trust in public institutions. To understand why the Rule of Law has ceded governance space to the rule of code we need to acknowledge the mediating role played by law and technology in social interaction. To recover this lost governance space and restore trust in the Rule of Law, we develop a framework comprising better enforcement and the reinterpretation of existing rights and the formulation of new collective interest-based rights.