Theories of Justice and law in/for the information society

DE ORTÚZAR, M. G; OLIVERA, N.; PROTTO, A.

Córdoba, Argentina

Congreso; Congreso Internacional Collecter Iberoamerica 2007; 2007

CollECTeR

   Justice and Law in / for the Information Society                                       M. Graciela de Ortúzar 1, Noemí Olivera2 and Araceli Proto3Abstract This paper is aimed to contribute to the theoretical discussion about policies and laws that are required to achieve the Information Society (IS). There cannot be found a specific and systemic legal policy regarding the IS all over the world. Whereas self regulation is being promoted from the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS), it is not within the reach of those who are not able to predispose a legal situation in their own benefit. As a consequence, there is a great inequality between rich and poor countries as regards the direction and priorities of the distribution and access to the Internet services and other benefits of the IS. For that reason, applying a ‘critical reflective equilibrium’ as methodology, we hold that justice considerations commit us to allocate benefit according to needs. Our duty is to use an allocation criterion that not only does not discriminate in terms of irrelevant moral reasons, but also focuses on the real needs of the specific developing society. And so, we uphold that an integrated society demands general rules –laws- to set up the IS’s legal frame, and they must be based on ethics. Key words: legal policies, ethics, law 1 Universidad Nacional de La Plata,  Dep. de Filosofía, Fac.  de Humanidades y Cs. de la Educación, Argentina, graceortuzar@hotmail.com 2 Universidad Nacional de La Plata,  Inst. de Integración Latinoamericana, Fac. de Cs. Jurídicas y Sociales, Argentina, nolivera@jursoc.unlp.edu.ar 3 Universidad Buenos Aires,  Lab. de Sistemas Complejos, Fac. de Ingeniería, Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, aproto@fi.uba.ar