Legal technology and emerging new forms of entrepreneurship: the case of social business
ENThe European Commission declares that social economy gives a lot to the European Union. The Council of the European Union defines the social economy as a key driver of economic and social development in Europe. Therefore, this paper attempts to look at the case of regulating social business through the legal technology. Usually legal technology refers to the use of technology and software to provide legal services. The scientists raise the question whether we need technology for the practice of law. If so, is the risk of using unproven or challenging legal technology products worth it? The scientists think that it is worth. They suggest that the approach should be to stop searching for what makes the law different and special, and instead focus on what makes it the same as other professional services. Moreover, the promotion of the rule of law by permitting ordinary citizens to actually make use of the powers granted to them by the legal system can be implemented also by using some legal technology. In this light, we can speak about social entrepreneurship as an innovative way to tackle social problems. The legal status and recognition of social enterprise varies from state to state. It seems that no common agreement is found on the EU level as well. Therefore, we can ask whether the legal technology could catalyse development of legal preconditions for social entrepreneurship. So far it is up to the particular country to decide whether the social enterprise is supposed to obtain special legal form or not. The connection of the legal technology with regulation of incorporation and maintenance of social enterprise also varies from state to state. The correlation between the above mentioned aspects is yet quite insignificant. Therefore, much more needs to be done at all levels of public policy to optimize the framework conditions for social enterprises. [From the publication]
