ABSTRACT
Advanced governance technologies give us the power to understand and mitigate the global impacts of production. This leads to a legal problem. If we know the global consequences of our actions, should we be held legally responsible for them, or is it just for law to insulate us from responsibility for consequences we could see but choose not to? Currently, it seems that developments in governing the global impacts of production are being matched by developments in private law. Firms central for governing global production structures may be held liable for not mitigating the impacts of these structures that are structurally far removed from the governing firm. If so, private law theory would have to explain why assumptions based on an actor’s structural proximity to damage are not always valid. A focus on the governance capabilities of actors could provide a more accurate description of the functioning of private law.
Jaakko Salminen, A private law for the technocene: rights in a world of infinite knowledge, Transnational Legal Theory. Published online: 22 July 2025.
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