Abstract In this Article, I delve into a development I call the emergence of new humans in European technology regulation and ethical discourses. This means that instead of natural persons, bureaucrats or civil servants, “humans” are assigned legal assignments and power. Humans are required to be in the loop, on the loop, or in command. This is reflected in legal requirements such as “human intervention,” “human oversight,” or “human judgment.” In the Article, I aim to make two contributions. First, I show and problematize the emergence of “new humans” as a corollary of digital technologies. I argue that this “human” is a conceptual transplant from the discourses of technology and its incorporation into law is uneasy. Second, I suggest that the emergence of “new humans” and the following reimagining of legal professionals give rise to a novel framing: Adopting a wide conception of legal technology. Through this conception, we could dismantle the human/machine distinction in public administration and approach all—digital tools and humans and human legal labor, even mindsets—as legal technologies. I argue that this would add value by making visible the naïve human exceptionalism embedded in our legal thinking and would question its sustainability.
Ida Koivisto (Tue,) studied this question.