This article provides an overview over the legal-theoretical context, the subject matter, aim and content of the book The Law of Global Digitality. Reviewing 25 years of cyberlaw theory, it posits that the debate concerning a proper description and an adequate theory of internet-related “cyberlaw” or, more generally, digital law, is far from over or settled. The book’s purpose accordingly is to improve our understanding of the interplay between digitality-the practical use of digital technologies (hardware, software, applications)-on the one hand and law on the other. The distinctive feature of the book to achieve this aim is that it brings together studies of six very different areas of law, namely intellectual property, data protection/privacy, consumer contracts, media law, financial market regulation and criminal law. By comparing how these very different areas of law have reacted to and at the same time shaped global digitality, structural regulatory patterns occurring across all fields might be identifiable. If a certain type of regulation, a substantive principle or another legal aspect could be observed in many or even all of these very diverse fields, it is plausible to assume that the recurring feature represents a specific characteristic of digital law and not just a variant of pre-digital law (aka “law of the horse”).
