Governing the Rule Space. Ruliology, Computational Irreducibility and Anticipatory Governance of Quantum Technologies

Abstract

The regulation of emerging technologies is often conceived as a strategy of catching up, because legislators arrive too late. Yet gathering signals, constructing scenarios and adapting rules to an anticipated future are fundamental tasks for those entrusted with governance, including the governance of rules themselves. The literature on so-called future law has already shown that anticipation means building institutional capabilities rather than predicting outcomes precisely (anticipatory governance). Taking this premise as its starting point, this article proposes to understand regulation as an exploration of the transformations that may occur. The Ruliological Framework for Anticipatory Regulation distinguishes rules, transformations and trajectories, assessing alternatives and possible developments. Within this approach, computational irreducibility is adopted conditionally, not as a demonstrated property of legal systems. The Quantum Europe Strategy provides a case study and further grounds for reflection.