Can the Law Keep Up with Technological Advancement?
- flaminiavisionfact
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Author: Dóra Fekete
If someone misses a software update today, at worst they get an annoying notification. If the law falls behind technology, however, the consequences can be far more serious. So the question is not merely theoretical: can the law truly keep pace with technological advancement, or are we watching a race that is lost from the start? Technology is fast by nature. New tools, platforms, and solutions appear almost weekly. What counted as innovation yesterday is already outdated today. By contrast, lawmaking is slow—and not by accident. Laws cannot be released in “beta versions” and quietly patched later. Rules affect the lives of millions of people, so they require stability, careful consideration, and predictability. These two speeds are increasingly colliding.
Algorithms Start Making Decisions
Just think about artificial intelligence. Algorithms decide who gets a loan, who is invited to a job interview, or even what news we see every day. While these systems are already part of our daily lives, the law is often still trying to understand what exactly they are and how they should be handled. Who is responsible for an algorithm’s decision? The developer? The user? The company? Or the system itself? These are not science-fiction questions but very real, practical dilemmas. The same is true for data protection. For a long time, it felt natural that data was being collected about us, without anyone really thinking through what that actually meant. By the time society realized that data had become a form of currency, technology giants had already gained a massive advantage. The law stepped in—but many felt it did so too late, and perhaps not firmly enough. Regulation was created, yet the question still hangs in the air: can it truly control a system that is constantly changing?
Law Is Not a Sprint
It is important, however, to see that the law’s “lag” is not necessarily a failure. Law is not a sprint; it is a marathon. Its task is not to react instantly to every new application, but to provide frameworks—principles that remain valid even when the technology itself has transformed. Problems arise when regulation becomes too specific and tied to a particular technical solution. By the time it enters into force, it may already be obsolete.
Perhaps this is why we need to rethink the relationship between law and technology altogether. The question is not whether the law can catch up with technology, but whether it can run alongside it—more flexibly, more openly, in continuous dialogue with developers, users, and society as a whole. Technology-neutral regulation, principle-based rules, and regular review processes may all help achieve this.
Finding Balance in the Digital Age
Of course, there is another, more uncomfortable question: do we actually want the law to always keep up? Technological progress is often equated with “advancement,” but not every innovation is automatically good. If the law adapts too quickly, it may legitimize solutions that are harmful in the long run. Facial recognition systems, mass surveillance, or fully automated decision-making are all areas where caution may be a virtue rather than a weakness. In this sense, the law’s slowness can sometimes be protective. It creates space for reflection, debate, and the asking of ethical questions. Because in the end, these are not technical problems, but human ones. They concern how much we are willing to sacrifice for convenience, and where we draw the line between innovation and human dignity. Technology will not slow down. That much is certain. The law, however, can decide whether it merely reacts or also sets direction. That requires courage, expertise, and openness—and perhaps a bit of humility as well: the recognition that there are no instant answers to everything.
Future Directions
We hope that we will be able to shape the law in a way that not only follows technological progress, but also interprets it and regulates it appropriately. If we succeed, we will not be talking about falling behind, but about a difficult yet necessary search for balance between law and digital technology. This may be one of our most important tasks in the modern society we live in today.
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