Xavier Groussot

Digital technologies have undoubtedly changed the outline of the organization of the modern society and indicated an emergence of the new era of its governance. Such manifestations of digitalization as social media, platform economy, big data, AI, fintech, blockchain and internet of things have become an integral and sometimes even unnoticeable part of our life having brought up, on the one hand, new solutions to the long-running problems (for example, an increased possibility of dismantling arbitrariness in decision-making processes originally carried out by humans) and, on the other hand, new unresolved challenges that pose questions to the suitability of the current legal framework regulating the digital society that is characterized by high level of flexibility and unpredictability of the results that is, however, underpinned by partially identifiable initial risks. The peculiarities of hi-tech solutions require refashioning existing modes of regulation that in its turn has a drastic impact on the edifice of EU law, including one of its cornerstones, namely the doctrine of general principles. The general principles of EU law have always been notable for their capacity of being swiftly responsive to the transformations occurring in the society and being better equipped for addressing the alterations inevitably affecting the constitutional foundations of the EU.