Lex Phonographica 6: Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach (1997)

In 1996, Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit delivered an address at the University of Chicago titled "Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse," which was published in the University of Chicago Legal Forum. In his address, Easterbrook mocked the idea of conceptualizing "cyberlaw" as a discrete field of legal research. Drawing on Gerhard Casper's similar dismissal of studying "the law of the horse," Easterbrook argued that legal scholarship should instead focus on identifying unifying themes and general theoretical principles.In 1997, Lawrence Lessig responded to Easterbrook's criticisms in an article titled "The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach," which was published in the Harvard Law Review. Among other things, Lessig argued that the law of cyberspace is different from other specialized areas of law, and may reward study in ways they do not.This episode of Lex Phonographica was read by Deborah Hartstein. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.