Law in a ‘Simulated’ Universe: The Educative Value of the Metaphor
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Murdoch University
Australia
Abstract
There are challenges to teaching law and legal theory to law students in the new millennium. It is a digital world, and the assumptions and foundations of the law do not mesh well with the shifts in identities and communities that are now in evidence. The idea of our universe being a simulation can be used as a metaphor to engage with digital natives about the fundamental uncertainty in the relationship between the law and the individual. The law and the legal theories of even the twentieth century do not suit the fluidity of today’s youth. Considering the metaphor of a simulated reality offers a ‘hook’ for conversations around ‘proper conduct’ across multiple communities of identity. It is not Truth, as it all may be simulated; instead, the necessary uncertainty around the possibility allows challenges and acceptances without the need for harsh Enlightenment.
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Author Biography
Chris is an Associate Professor at Murdoch University, where a significant part of his research looks at the regulation of expression and creativity. Prior to that, he had a research-focused position at Melbourne Law School, mostly at the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia. Much of his work there focused on the history and theory of IP. Before IPRIA, he worked in defamation law at the Centre for Media and Communications Law. His underlying critical approach arose while undertaking, initially in Murdoch’s School of Politics, his PhD – an application of Foucault’s archaeological method to a history of law.
