Stalla-Bourdillon, Sophie and Thorburn, Robert, Henry (2019) The scandal of intermediary: Acknowledging the both/and dispensation for regulating hybrid actors. In, Petkova, B. and Ojanen, T. (eds.) Fundamental Rights Protection Online: the Future Regulation of Intermediaries. Edward Elgar. (In Press)
Abstract
The ambition of this chapter is twofold. First, it is an attempt to unveil the scandal of intermediary by stressing and sketching the hybridity of Internet intermediaries. It is argued from this assessment that the use of binary and exclusive oppositions in EU law, such as ‘active/passive’ and ‘general monitoring/monitoring in a specific case,’ has created confusion in as much as the ‘both/and’ dispensation has not been acknowledged. Second, this chapter aims to reconstruct a regulatory approach based on the premise that intermediation implies hybridity. It therefore argues that if Internet intermediaries are hybrid, the legal response to confine the increasing powers of actors performing intermediary activities can only be hybrid and plural. In particular, it suggests that the legal response should move away or go beyond the traditional civil liability question “When do Internet intermediaries have sufficient evidence to be vicariously liable?” to focus upon expressions of regulatory power, i.e. intermediaries’ own acts, with a view to confine this regulatory power, even if regulatory modalities are necessarily mixed and combined. This chapter therefore critically comments upon the evolution of intermediary liability in the EU, making the case that the E-commerce Directive should remain a cornerstone of the EU legal framework.
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- Current Faculties > Faculty of Social Sciences > Southampton Law School > Law A
Southampton Law School > Law A - Faculties (pre 2018 reorg) > Faculty of Engineering and the Environment (pre 2018 reorg) > Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute (pre 2018 reorg)
- Faculties (pre 2018 reorg) > Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering (pre 2018 reorg) > Electronics & Computer Science (pre 2018 reorg)
Current Faculties > Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences > School of Electronics and Computer Science > Electronics & Computer Science (pre 2018 reorg)
School of Electronics and Computer Science > Electronics & Computer Science (pre 2018 reorg) - Current Faculties > Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences > Web Science Institute > CDT Web Science Innovation
Web Science Institute > CDT Web Science Innovation
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