The Subject of Law in the Digital Age

The article analyzes the trends in the development of law in the digital age, the positive and negative consequences of legal digitalization for society. The author considers the proposals of individual authors on expanding the composition of subjects of law, recognizing the legal personality of electronic persons, robots created on the basis of artificial intelligence, other technical devices, as well as highly organized animals. The paper also provides some considerations in favour of preserving the “human nature” of the subject of law. As an alternative to the inclusion of technical devices in the subjects of law, it is proposed to legally recognize (constitute) a special group (several groups) of legal phenomena characterized by the combination of the features of the subject and object of law (transitional subject-object states). Another proposal is to establish a special legal regime for them that is not related to the recognition of their legal personality, the granting of subjective rights and legal obligations. Their “mission” in law should be to perform technical and auxiliary, executive functions, tasks.