[author]Ma Changshan

[content]

Digital Law for the "Three-dimensional World"

Ma Changshan

Professor at East China University of Political Science and Law

Abstract: Digital law is based on the systematic creation of the "three-dimensional world" and unfolds its core scope within it. It presents the re-creation of the subjectivity of "digital humans", the digital logic of human life, and the shared empowerment of digital contracts, thus generating digital rights that are fluid, scenario-based, penetrating, and interactive. Based on the transformation from the contract theory to the "tripartite theory", a complex power structure consisting of traditional digital power, new digital power and technological digital power has been constructed. The transition from the "two-dimensional world" to the "three-dimensional world" has enabled digital justice to break away from the distributive strategy of moral reasoning. It is computational justice in terms of attributes, based on cognitive computing in terms of process, and visual justice in terms of approach. Therefore, it is a kind of matching justice through computational analysis. It can be seen from this that digital law studies bear an important mission and responsibility of The Times. They should be committed to distilling the legal propositions in "Chinese-style modernization", innovating independent digital law theories, and thereby shaping an independent legal knowledge system in the new era.

Key words: Digital Law, Digital Rights, Digital Power, Digital Justice, Digital rule of Law

What the current information revolution has profoundly changed is not merely people's production and life, but fundamentally, it has enabled humanity to enter a digital state of existence. Based on this, legal values, order logic, and rule systems have all undergone tremendous changes, exceeding the scope that the existing legal framework can explain, encompass, and accommodate. Therefore, this will inevitably give rise to digital law in the new era and endow it with the important theoretical mission of responding to changes and transformations and shaping digital rule of law. In February 2023, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and The General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Legal Education and Legal Theory Research in the New Era", making strategic arrangements for optimizing the legal discipline system and accelerating the development of emerging disciplines such as "Digital Law". Research on digital law is also in full swing. However, for the distinctive theory of digital law, previous research has also shown a tendency towards being hasty, fragmented and bubble-like, resulting in insufficient uniqueness, systematicness and theoretical nature. This not only makes it difficult to distinguish it from related departmental law research, but also restricts the innovative development and contemporary contribution of digital law. This article intends to deeply explain the basic concepts and core categories of digital law from the perspectives of principles, mechanisms and underlying logic, and strives to make some theoretical attempts to build an independent legal knowledge system in China.

1. The Evolution of Law from the "One-dimensional World" to the "Three-dimensional World"

From the perspective of the timeline, the development process of law can be roughly divided into ancient law, medieval law, modern law, contemporary law and contemporary law. However, if viewed from its theoretical logical axis, it presents three major forms: traditional law, modern law, and digital law, demonstrating an iterative transformation from the "one-dimensional world" to the "three-dimensional world".

1.1 The Construction of the "Two-dimensional World" in Modern Jurisprudence

Modern and contemporary legal theories are all based on the values of enlightenment. They reflect the life patterns, political forms and worldviews of the industrial and commercial society, and interpret the legal logic of the "two-dimensional world".

1.1.1 The different perspectives of traditional Jurisprudence and Modern Jurisprudence

"Traditional law" refers to the legal theory based on the traditional state of existence and values. It encompasses the pre-modern period of the West, reflecting the lifestyle, political form and worldview of the agricultural society, and jointly interpreting the legal logic of the "one-dimensional world". That is to say, it is believed that law originates from the reason of God, human order is subject to the "natural order" determined by God, and secular authority needs to obtain theological "legitimacy". Ancient China, on the other hand, embarked on a path of "the king following the laws of heaven" based on patriarchal ethics. Especially after the Han Dynasty, the concepts of "divine mandate bestowed by heaven" and "bestowed by heaven" ran through the entire feudal society, used to defend the sacredness and rationality of imperial power. The emperor could bestow rewards and punishments on behalf of heaven, and thus was the planner and controller of the "Heavenly Way" and "Heavenly principle" order. Thus, the principle of the people obeying the emperor and the emperor obeying the "Heavenly Way" was formed, which reflected the largely similar logic of "legitimacy" in traditional society. This means that both traditional Chinese and Western jurisprudence ultimately returned to the "one-dimensional world" of deities. Whether it was legislation and judiciary or the judgment of justice or not, whether it was the operation of secular power or daily life behaviors, they all had to obey the rational logic and planned order of divinity.

The modern Western commercial revolution and the "3R Movement" initiated the process of legal reform from the "one-dimensional world" to the "two-dimensional world". The first is the separation of law and theology; Second, the movement from identity to contract promoted the formation and development of the social contract theory and laid the framework foundation for the legal order. The third is the rise of the subjective rights theory, with the core being that humans have replaced gods. In summary, the Western legal reform since the 11th century has shown a development trajectory from sacred authority to free will, from religious ethics to scientific empirical evidence, and from hierarchical dependence to consensual contract. Its fundamental significance lies in moving away from the "one-dimensional world" where all things belong to deities and forming a modern dual architecture system, thereby reconstructing human order.

1.1.2 The "two-dimensional world" framework logic of modern Jurisprudence

The direct consequence of the Enlightenment was the formation of a anthropocentric value system based on the physical and spiritual "two-dimensional world". The physical world here is an objective existence system that encompasses matter, energy and space-time, while the spiritual world is a subjective existence system that includes thought, consciousness and value, that is, "material, existing in the physical world; Symbolic, existing in the psychological world; "Internal, existing within the structural world." In the interaction between the two, dialectical relationships between matter and consciousness, subject and object, objectivity and subjectivity have emerged and are deeply embedded in legal theory and legal norms.

First, the state and society. In the traditional law of the "one-dimensional world", the state and society, as well as human beings and nature, are all the same, so ultimately they must be unified under the divine precepts. The development of modernity has not only led to the separation of the secular and the church in the spiritual realm, but also triggered the separation of the state and society in the life realm. The relationships between human beings and nature, the self and the other, and the individual and the state all need to be placed within the unity of opposites between the physical world and the spiritual world, as well as between internal needs and the external environment. This has formed a dual construction of public interests and private interests, as well as public power and private rights.

Secondly, subject and object. The relationship between the subject and the object in law is essentially a human-centered relationship between people and all things. In the traditional law of the "one-dimensional world", human beings cannot independently face the outside world without deities. Therefore, from ancient Greece and Rome to the laws of the Middle Ages, the personal status of social members was always determined within the scope of divine revelation based on blood ties, property, geographical location, social hierarchy, etc. In ancient China, the patriarchal order pattern of the supreme imperial power was established through the "Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues" under the framework of "Heavenly Way" and "Human Way". After the Western Reformation, there was a shift from "theocratic" to "humanistic", and the relationship between the subject and the object began to be incorporated into the "two-dimensional world". Thus, "a modernist self began to emerge, advocating an ability almost similar to God's choice of values and goals, and thereby controlling and reshaping the natural and social world." This thus becomes an important way for human beings to exert their autonomy in the face of the physical world and thereby achieve liberation.

Thirdly, subjectivity and objectivity. Subjectivity and objectivity are the constituent elements or balancing conditions of legal relations, legal acts and other aspects in modern law, and they are also the important basis for the justification and definition of rights, obligations and responsibilities. However, ancient laws evaluated people's behaviors more based on a deified concept of "legitimacy". It was not until the 17th century that Hobbes began to recognize that natural rights originated from human natural tendencies, thus laying the theoretical foundation for the modern view of natural rights. As a result, the status and value of the subjective and the objective in the "two-dimensional world" became prominent, and free will, behavioral patterns, legal effects, and causal relationships became particularly important. It is evident that "the complete separation of the self from the objective world - an unshakable milestone in the modernist world", which determines the fundamental mechanisms and models of the modern legal order.

In conclusion, modern jurisprudence is a theoretical construction carried out within a two-dimensional framework of the physical and spiritual worlds. Its core elements are people, things, and events, and its themes lie in legal cognition, legal acts, legal relationships, and legal consequences. This is the underlying logic of modern jurisprudence. The recent postmodernist legal trend has launched a movement of reflection, criticism and deconstruction against modern law, but in a certain sense, it is on the "transfer track" between modern society and digital society.

1.2 Digital Law in the "Three-dimensional World"

Today's digital jurisprudence is undoubtedly a legal theory based on the digital way of life and values of human beings. It reflects the lifestyle, political form and worldview of the digital society and is interpreting the legal logic of the "three-dimensional world".

1.2.1 The theoretical attempt of the world's "triple"

Since ancient times, human beings have begun to think about and explore the world. Plato distinguished reality from phenomena, forming a "triple" of the material world, the spiritual world, and the world of ideas (forms). However, the latter two are theoretical abstractions of the intellectual world and the sensory world, while "the most fundamental is only God, or goodness, and ideas describe God." From this perspective, Plato's "triple" of the world is actually still a "one-dimensional world" view. In recent times, Popper held that the world has a universal structure, with an objective knowledge world (World 3) existing beyond the physical world (World 1) and the spiritual world (World 2). It is the "third world as an artificial product", and thus possesses objectivity, reality, autonomy and ontological status. But in fact, Popper merely disassembled the spiritual world in a certain sense and did not go beyond the basic framework and internal logic of the "two-dimensional world".

1.2.2 Systematic creation of the "three-dimensional World"

Modern scientism is based on the cosmology of Descartes, Newton and others, holding that the vast world is rule-abiding, universally orderly and predictable. The human mind is defined as "the mirror of nature", "believed to have the ability to express the world through stable, definite and precise objective knowledge", thus forming a binary logic of subject-object, material-spirit and fact-value. However, with the rise of information theory, relativity, quantum theory, superstring theory, etc., people discovered that "everything in the world exists based on information", and thus achieved a fundamental transformation from the "two-dimensional world" to the "three-dimensional world".

Firstly, the emergence of "real" information. In ontology, the massive amount of information in the digital age is a self-expression of the state and changes of the movement of things, as well as the state and change patterns of their internal structure and external connections. In epistemology, they represent a human grasp of the attributes, functions and all states of objects. This means that information is the self-expression of things and human perception of meaning presented on the information carrier. With the help of new technologies, it "is both the re-ontology of our world and the creation of new reality". If in the Industrial Revolution, "everything revolved around production and labor force control", then in the information society, "all social behaviors revolved around production and information control". Therefore, information is objective and real.

Secondly, the "birth" of the digital world. On the one hand, with the emergence of quantum theory and superstring theory, people have realized that: Every physical system in the universe, from the rotating Milky Way to the neurons in our brains, "is a 'computer' in terms of performing this or that kind of calculation". Thus, all complex systems can be regarded as interactive systems of information and control, and this information is dominated by the interaction of order and disorder, and these controls follow the laws of the universe. On the other hand, digitalization has profoundly changed and reshaped human production and lifestyle. "Information processing dominates society and permeates every aspect of life." If the former represents humanity's systematic understanding and ontological grasp of the "two-dimensional world", then the latter is humanity's deconstruction and reshaping of the "two-dimensional world" through emerging technologies, thereby creating a "third world" beyond the physical and spiritual worlds. Although it cannot do without the natural foundation of biological survival, it has created a twin state of learning, working and living in the digital space, presenting digital behavioral patterns and ways of survival, and forming a new type of "digital world" with the same structure of the virtual and the real.

Thirdly, the framework of the "three-dimensional world". The digital world has distinct characteristics of its own: Firstly, it is parallel. The digital world is presented through data information and algorithms. It is not only a diachronic and synchronic digital representation of World 1 and World 2, but also an extension and expansion of the human way of life brought about by data technology. Therefore, it "holds an equal status with World 1 and World 2", yet is completely different. Secondly, it is mirror image. Each of us has multiple digital identities and digital footprints corresponding to ourselves mapped in the digital space. In this way, all activities and relationships in the digital world are real, but they are parallel and asynchronous digital twins to the physical and spiritual worlds. This is very similar to the mirror image and "heterotopia" state described by Foucault. Secondly, it is interembedded. The digital world not only creates a brand-new model for human digital survival, but also "is the third space where physical, social and digital factors cross-border integrate, and is increasingly becoming the intermediary system of the 'physical-social' space." Physical space, social space (including mental activities) and digital space achieve the important functions of connection, interweaving and reshaping through data information. Finally, it is distributionally visible. Although everyone is a participant, actor and contributor in the digital world, the degree of visibility and access to this mirror world varies greatly from person to person. To put it specifically, data processors have an extremely strong ability to build, access and observe the digital world in the background, while ordinary users only have very limited visibility and scope of the digital world within the boundaries of their own accounts and service ports. At the same time, data processors such as governments, platforms, and technology companies will naturally have quite different capabilities in terms of visibility of the digital world in the application of modeling algorithms, digital twins, and metaverse technologies, and there will also be significant differences among the general public. In this way, the digital world presents an inherent characteristic of visible distribution.

In conclusion, the digital world is not limited to the data information world or the virtual network world, but rather a ubiquitous new world that presents digital lifestyles, builds digital communication relationships, and creates digital benefits and value. It is undoubtedly a digital reflection and representation of the physical and spiritual worlds, and naturally, it is embedded and integrated with these two worlds. However, it encompasses a living space that blends the virtual and the real, a dual personality of biological and digital, a relationship scene of human-computer interaction, and a knowledge spectrum of cognitive computing. Therefore, it has a completely different operational system, internal logic, and value orientation from the physical and spiritual worlds Only in this way can it truly become a more autonomous and ontological "Third World".

1.2.3 Legal Expression of the "Three-dimensional World"

In today's digital society, effective theoretical explanations and legal expressions based on the "three-dimensional world" are needed.

First, digital legal relations. Digital legal relations mainly refer to the social relations regulated by law in the digital world. From the perspective of the "three-dimensional world", the entire world is like a huge parallel computer, capable of perceiving that behind each natural law there exists a program and algorithm. It is also through the brain that people filter, organize and process information, making daily life possible. Based on this, an "information circle" distinct from the "physical circle" and the "biosphere" has been formed, within which "we will constantly construct and transform the world", thereby demonstrating a social relationship in the digital world. It needs to be based on the digital space, build digital identities, present digital interactions, and thereby generate digital interests, creating the form of the digital economy and the order of the digital society, and thus constituting the realistic foundation of digital legal relations.

Second, digital legal acts. Digital legal acts mainly refer to digital acts regulated by law and producing legal effects. In the digital society, people exhibit a "human-machine symbiosis" model in terms of behavior patterns and contents, characterized by the integration of biological and digital aspects, the interweaving of reality and virtuality, and human-machine interaction. This will go beyond the traditional scope of physical and verbal behaviors, presenting an action pattern of virtual and real isomorphism expressed and realized through data/information, algorithms and networks, and occupy a mainstream position in the digital society. In this way, the previous theoretical analysis of subjective elements such as the motivation, purpose and cognitive ability of behavior, as well as objective elements such as actions, means and effects, will experience a certain degree of failure. The binary analysis framework of subject and object, subjective and objective based on physical logic, as well as the system of rights and responsibilities, and the modern rule of law designed and operated based on biological behavior, will undoubtedly face many awkward situations. It is urgent to define digital legal acts based on the digital world and establish new normative systems and legal mechanisms to actively respond.

Thirdly, digital legal value. The value of digital law mainly refers to the good attributes, significance and goals reflected, promoted and achieved by law in the digital world. It mainly includes:

First, digital autonomy. Since the industrial civilization, people have begun to worry that "technological rationality and human values are competing for the soul of modern people". However, in the digital age, even more severe alienation has emerged. The first is ideological navigation, that is, problems such as data transparency and "electronic cages", information "feeding" and "information cocoons" have emerged, forming a "brainwashing" kind of conceptual induction and ideological capture. The second is non-intrusive control. Platforms, data and algorithms have begun to break away from the traditional order forms and mechanism structures, transcending physical, biological and external control methods. This has created a new type of digital control form that is digital, virtual and real, and internal, leading to the objectification of monitoring and collection, calculation and analysis, perceptual control and automatic execution. This has thus formed an ecological environment that reflects on and intervenes in the physical space through the digital space and examines and controls the human body of living beings through digital identities. Thirdly, it dissolves willpower. The spatial interweaving, human-computer interaction and algorithmic decision-making of the "three-dimensional world" have gradually developed into the dominant scenarios of work and life. This not only realizes the replacement of physical labor, but also continuously promotes the replacement of simple mental labor. On the other hand, in scenarios such as human-machine hybrid decision-making and human-machine collaborative behavior, there emerges a "semantic connection" and "behavioral mixture" between humans and algorithms (machines). All these will undoubtedly have an impact on people's free will. If not handled properly, they will bring a kind of "death" risk to humanity, that is, "a death of losing freedom, a death of will". The above situation indicates that while digital technology has significantly enhanced the quality of human life, it has also seriously eroded human subjectivity and freedom and autonomy, urgently requiring effective value perception and legal response.

Secondly, digital justice. Platforms, data and algorithms are the fundamental hallmarks of the digital age and the core mechanisms for the operation of the digital world. On the one hand, digital development will expand or exacerbate the existing unfairness. On the other hand, new focuses of justice have emerged in the process of digital development, such as data justice, code justice and algorithmic justice issues. It reflects the development logic of the digital society, breaks through the previous justice benchmark of the "two-dimensional world", and urgently needs to explore and establish new digital justice values, which will be elaborated in detail later.

Finally, digital human rights. In today's digital age, everyone is both a biological person and a digital person. It presents, depicts, expresses and constructs people's natural nature, personality traits, behavioral strategies and life scenarios, showcases the human life schema in the "three-dimensional world", contains people's digital personality and subject value, and thus becomes the foundation and source of legitimacy for the theory of digital human rights. At present, the protection of digital human rights has also been incorporated into the United Nations' "Digital Cooperation Roadmap" and the Global Digital Compact, which is bound to become the core of digital legal value.

2. The Three Core Categories of Digital Law

The core scope of digital law is not a comprehensive "start from scratch", but rather a transformation and reshaping from the "two-dimensional world" to the "three-dimensional world" in response to the development requirements of the digital age.

2.1 Digital rights

If traditional law in the "one-dimensional world" is a unified theory centered on God and modern law in the "two-dimensional world" is a dualism centered on human beings, then digital law in the "three-dimensional world" is a systems theory centered on numbers. Of course, the "number" here does not refer to a formal unit of calculation, but rather data information in the digital world. At the same time, this does not dissolve human beings but elevates them - people with both biological and digital attributes, and digital rights also emerge as a result.

2.1.1 The era of digital rights has emerged

Firstly, the re-creation of the subjectivity of "digital humans". Since the Age of Enlightenment, when humans replaced gods and examined, controlled and transformed the world with anthropocentrism, people have been thinking about everything based on subject and object. However, since the 17th century, "some philosophers have held that there is a barrier between the subject and the object, and between the structure of human senses and mind and the way things exist in themselves, and they believe that people cannot cross this barrier to reach reality and the object", which means that there is an insurmountable chasm in the dualism of the subject and the object, the subjective and the objective, and the state and society.

In fact, when Nietzsche declared "God is dead" back then, his aim was to establish the subject status of human beings. Foucault passionately called out, "Man too is dead," aiming to shatter the "subject myth" of the Enlightenment. Their core essence is all about how to bridge the dualistic chasm and rebuild human subjectivity. After entering the "three-dimensional world" of the digital age, the gap between the subject and the object has begun to blur. The first is digital cognition. Under the condition of "digitalization of all things", algorithms "not only analyze the world but also actively transform it". Data analysis can make things more transparent and visible, and the cognitive gap between the host and the guest is significantly narrowed. This simultaneously changes people's self-identity and perception of others. The second is collaborative cognition. In the context of human-computer interaction, machines, as active participants, join society and connect with humans. On the one hand, it can understand people through data and algorithms; on the other hand, it can also understand the world. This "human-machine community" system collaborative cognition promotes information exchange among the "three-dimensional world". The third is to generate cognition. Generative cognition relies neither on experience nor on reason, but on embodiment. AI systems can form a "common working mechanism" of "converting object information into perceptual information, perceptual information into knowledge, and then knowledge into intelligent strategies and further into intelligent behaviors", while generative artificial intelligence can generate text, images, videos or other information based on user prompts. In this process, it can understand users, understand the world and even edit the world.

The above three kinds of cognition are not merely an epistemological revolution, but also an ontological "human revolution". That is to say, human beings have transcended their biological nature, forming a huge extension in digital existence and human-computer interaction, thereby to a certain extent "penetrating" the host/guest barrier, promoting the resolution of binary oppositions, and more importantly, ushering in the era of the "three-dimensional world". In this way, the "subject is regenerated", and its free will, behavioral patterns, social effects, etc. are all embedded with digital factors. At the same time, in addition to digital avatars such as digital human images, digital portraits, and the "resurrection" of the deceased, digital objects like virtual property, AI digital human products, and autonomous robots have also emerged. Therefore, the generation of digital social relations and digital rights is inevitable.

Secondly, the digital logic of human life. In the "two-dimensional world", the human life scene is composed of people, objects and events in the physical space-time. Since "events" occur and unfold around "people" and "objects", ultimately, it is still the interrelationship between people and people, and between people and objects (nature), forming what is called "right to human rights" and "right to property rights", thus presenting a "physical-biological" logic. However, in the "three-dimensional world", beyond the "physical-biological" logic, a new type of digital logic is being deduced, which in turn gives birth to digital rights.

First of all, data and information have become the core of life. From the perspective of the social production process, the living core of the "two-dimensional world" is capital and labor, while in the "three-dimensional world", it can be seen that "essentially the world is composed of information". The digital world is either a digital mapping of the physical world and the spiritual world, or a digital organization, regulation and construction of production and life through data information processing and algorithm models.

Secondly, algorithmic decision-making becomes the driving force of order. The digital age has brought about a fully digitalized way of life. The transformation and development of the digital economy, digital society, digital government, etc. are rapid. Automated decision-making and the application of large models have become the core forces driving the changes of The Times and the construction of order. Thus, "a world defined by algorithms" has emerged.

Secondly, digital interaction has become a regular part of life. After entering the digital age, people are increasingly integrating into online life. Since every natural person is an "information entity", people are increasingly shifting from biological expression to digital expression. Social relations thus revolve around the "dynamic digital self". "Datafization can not only transform attitudes and emotions into an analyzable form, but also potentially translate them into human behavior." This has made daily interactions more digital, convenient and efficient, and the "three-dimensional world" has also become richer and more vibrant.

Finally, digital interests have become the focus of power. In the "two-dimensional world", the focus of power is naturally on personality and property. However, after entering the "three-dimensional world", a more complex digital ecological environment such as digital space, digital personality, and human-computer interaction is formed. As a result, the controlling factors and forms hidden behind personality and property emerge. To put it simply: One is "you are your information", because the average predictability of all users is around 93%. The serious problem brought about by this "panoramic view" in the digital world is that even "who we are" is controlled, and thus the interests of digital personality are bound to be severely undermined. Second, information in the digital age is at the center of power. Technology and information controllers can exercise power by controlling people's perception of the world, thereby implementing digital surveillance and "perceptual control", and digital autonomy rights have been severely eroded. Thirdly, the application of emerging technologies can generate unprecedented digital benefits, such as "resurrecting" the deceased, shaping digital humans, brain-computer interfaces, digital twins, and the metaverse. Through these simulation calculations and transformation expressions, digital identities, virtual objects, and digital benefits are constantly created, modified, transformed, and transmitted. At this point, information can be understood as a fundamental relationship between human beings and reality, and the demarcation of digital interests becomes the focus of The Times. In conclusion, digital interests have become the core of rights claims in the "three-dimensional world".

Thirdly, the shared empowerment of digital contracts. Since the Enlightenment, the premises, foundation, connotation and logic of the social contract theory have all been unable to accommodate digital space, digital identity, digital relations and digital interests. Moreover, the "three-dimensional world" not only breaks through the existing framework and institutional arrangements of rights and obligations, but also gives rise to new issues such as the digital divide, digital human rights and digital justice in the process of disruptive reconstruction. The Global Digital Compact just adopted by the United Nations is essentially an order design and framework arrangement for the digital world, and also an effort to integrate and optimize the "three-dimensional world". That is to say, the digital contract is a complement and reconstruction of the previous social contract. It not only demarcates and shares digital benefits but also sets important benchmarks and directions for digital empowerment.

It is evident that digital rights possess a strong driving force for generation and a profound social foundation. They are not "traditional rights of digital content" or the "digitalization" of traditional rights, but rather "emerging in terms of applicable space, empowerment methods, rights structure and operational logic". It is not an online transfer of rights in the "two-dimensional world", but a new type of rights generated based on the digital space, digital subjects, digital objects and digital interests in the "three-dimensional world".

2.1.2 Basic characteristics of Digital rights

Since digital rights are based in the "three-dimensional world", they are bound to have basic characteristics that are different from traditional rights. This is mainly manifested in:

First, the liquidity of digital rights. In modern legal theory, people, things and acts are the "constant and unchanging elements" contained in the essence of rights. However, the new life in the digital age will move from solid to liquid through the digital world. First, the nature of information is fluid. In the process of flow, it constantly creates and updates the value chain and, through various social feedback mechanisms, plays a role in changing the social structure. The second is the continuously changing drift relationship form, including "user drift" caused by the change of people using the data system, "behavioral drift" caused by the change of the way people use the system, and "system drift" caused by the change of the system itself. The third is the fluidity and ambiguity of the subjects. Each person has multiple constantly updated and changing, decentralized digital identities in multiple data systems, which further increases the fluidity and plasticity of the subjects in the digital environment. Thus, "subjectivity becomes scattered and, at least to some extent, detaches from the causal chain." In this way, the digital interests and digital rights formed by people in the "three-dimensional world" are bound to show fluidity, and the legal interests they contain are also difficult to solidify. In fact, the reason why the "Twenty Data Policies" bypassed the "solid" ownership to implement the "three rights separation" is that they fully took into account the "liquid" nature of digital rights.

Secondly, the contextual nature of digital rights. The interactive integration of the "three-dimensional world" has led to the adoption of digital and scenario-based operation models in various fields such as politics, economy, society and culture. It opposes the rule system and governance model of universalism and rationalism, and advocates a scenario-based mechanism featuring individuality, diversity, flexible experience and interoperability. In this way, in terms of empowerment methods, we should move away from the previous path dependence of state-based and fixed rights confirmation, and instead shift towards a fluid and process-oriented rights confirmation strategy, that is, formulating principle provisions (framework guidelines) - scenario-based empowerment (detailed types) - case judgments (reality protection) This will further resolve the tension between the "solidification" of rights confirmation and the "fluidity" of transactions, as well as between rules and order and innovative transformation, and better confirm and protect digital rights in a scenario-based manner.

Thirdly, the penetrability of digital rights. Under the condition of the "three-dimensional world", People's Daily lives are all structurally integrated with the virtual and the real, and data information is also both public and private. Based on network platforms, data information and modeling algorithms, a small keyboard enables people to transcend physical time and space, achieving remote on-site presence or on-site presence elsewhere. Moreover, technologies such as digital twins, the metaverse and generative artificial intelligence have realized cross-border system interaction, forming a full-element and full-scenario visual ecosystem that penetrates physical boundaries, departmental barriers and relationship barriers. At this point, people's behaviors and interests become "penetrating", and their corresponding digital rights should be confirmed and protected in the process of "penetrating".

Fourth, the interactivity of digital rights. With the accelerated iteration and development of intelligence, more and more advanced robots will be involved in human work. Even some fully automatic intelligent systems can guide and determine human behavior, such as electronic traffic police, non-regulatory codes, automatic execution, intelligent prediction and evaluation systems, etc. Although large models optimize human knowledge rather than create new knowledge, they have already begun to participate in the production of human knowledge. The human knowledge optimized by them (especially that beyond what the average person has mastered) has also influenced human judgment and decision-making, that is, human values and behavioral patterns. In this case, both the theory of interests of rights and the theory of will of rights will encounter severe challenges.

Looking further, the "behavior" of intelligent systems exhibits a certain kind of "computational will" or even "illusion". When the automated decisions of these systems are used to "assist" human decision-making, or even directly assess human activities and living conditions, or carry out automated law enforcement and judicial work, the "human-machine community" can guide users in specific directions and may even "determine our possible ways of existence". Thus, this not only makes the subjective state of human beings manifest as a mixture of "free will - computational will", but also enables legal acts to incorporate the factor of human-machine interoperability. In other words, the rapid development of science and technology such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and brain-computer interfaces has not only changed the external environment of free will, but also "weakened, eroded and even cancelled the biological basis of free will. Although at present they have not even reached the level of seriously questioning free will, at most they have weakened the role of free will in individual behavior." In this way, the rights and obligations relationship is naturally endowed with human-computer interaction, accompanied by complex intersections and multi-directional dialogues in terms of morality and behavioral norms. At this point, how to ensure the subjectivity and autonomy of will of human beings and thereby bear the corresponding legal consequences becomes particularly crucial.

2.2 Digital Power

In today's digital age, the "three-dimensional world" has become the underlying logic of social operation, and digital economy, digital society, digital government, digital rule of law, etc. have successively become the dominant forms. Thus, a new form of digital power emerged outside the traditional power system.

2.2.1 From the Contract Theory to the "Tripartite Theory"

Contract theory is the theoretical foundation and framework guidance of modern government, but it is a kind of "dualism". Nowadays, digital government is presented as a "tripartite" theory based on the government, society (users), and platforms. On the one hand, it breaks through the traditional presupposition of the "binary opposition" between the state and society, builds a tripartite relationship in the platform paradigm, and constructs a new governance model of digital administration, social collaboration, and citizen participation. Thus, it moves away from the binary game theory in the theories of power control, management, and balance, and turns to the system interaction theory based on the intersubjectivity and dialogue interaction of digitalization. On the other hand, in the relationship between the government and society, the value principle that "the government is the platform and citizens are the users" should be established. In terms of the relationship between the government and the platform, a governance model has been adopted where the government imposes additional responsibilities on the platform. In terms of the relationship between users (society, citizens) and the platform, it has shifted from "the user is God" to an interactive relationship where "the user is data". The core orientation lies in shaping a platform-based, digitalized and intelligent digital power operation mechanism, thereby establishing a governance order of the "three-dimensional world".

2.2.2 The new pattern of digital power

Just like digital rights, it is very difficult for us to precisely define digital power. However, the development of digital technology has indeed brought about two major changes: one is that digital technology empowers power, and the other is that digital development alters the power structure, reflecting the basic power operation diagram in the "three-dimensional world".

First, the digitalization of traditional power. This mainly refers to the digital presentation and operation of the original form of power in contemporary times. In the "two-dimensional world", the scope of power is mainly limited to the government's authority acting on public Spaces, and it basically adopts physical and biological control methods. It can be said to be a "natural" mode of power operation in physical time and space. In today's "three-dimensional world", the platform government model has broken through the geographical hierarchy, and data visibility has transcended empirical rationality, thus forming a new digital governance mechanism and paradigm - "digital intelligence governance". At this point, traditional power has also acquired new digital manifestations, such as automated administration, digital prosecution, and digital courts. Its advantages lie in agility, node nature and penetration, which can provide convenient services, immediate protection and effective mitigation of social risks for the public. However, in some places, digital and intelligent governance has set up monitoring functions such as "telescopes", "microscopes" and "radars", and constructed a digital and intelligent governance system of "knowing in advance, controlling in advance, knowing throughout the process and controlling throughout the process", which has achieved a technical rewrite of institutional rules and administrative procedures. During this process, some government departments often, based on their own positions and weighing the pros and cons, technically "adapt" the rules, compress procedures and reduce the space for discretionary power, thereby circumventing the constraints and controls of relevant systems and procedures in a "covert" manner, resulting in regulatory evasion in aspects such as rule application, discretionary judgment, restraint and supervision, and administrative responsibility. Therefore, the legal control of digital power has become an important issue of The Times.

Secondly, the nascent digital power. This mainly refers to the power form and mechanism that emerged after humanity entered the "three-dimensional world", with networking, digitalization and intelligence as its core elements. The digital world created by today's information revolution has a different structure, rules and behavioral patterns from the original "two-dimensional world", transcending all traditional control methods and jurisdictional scopes of power. At this point, after numerous capitals and technologies have integrated, they are pouring money into the vast digital space and new business forms to "carve out land", and achieving technological empowerment and self-empowerment through "breaking the institutional window" and "taking the lead in technology", thereby forcing the government to "recognize" and make relevant institutional reforms. However, governments around the world cannot turn a blind eye to these "digital land-grabbing" and institutional challenges, and thus are bound to step into this "Western World". In this way, the government's digital public power has risen to the top, such as platform governance power, data governance power, algorithm governance power, etc. In the generation structure of platform power/rights, the proportion of digital private power is also constantly increasing. First, it has a huge resource mobilization capacity and a dominant position, and exerts a significant influence on the economy, society and even the country. Second, due to considerations such as their limited technical capabilities, the complexity of regulatory methods and models for new business forms, government administrative departments tend to "impose more responsibility" on these digital platforms for some public law review matters, making them play the role of "gatekeepers", thereby forming a huge digital private power with certain quasi-public power characteristics. Thirdly, it has the dual regulatory capabilities of both intra-platform governance and extra-platform governance. Therefore, whether it is digital public power or digital private power, they all indicate: "Through the mining of the data world, everything in the world can be calculated and understood. Thus, the original black box world is gradually opened up and turns into a transparent world." In a transparent world, everything about people can be recognized and grasped, and their future can be predicted. In this way, a social ecosystem featuring ubiquitous computing and surveillance is formed. It is evident that the nascent digital power has an unprecedented penetrating power, which has led to the failure of the "institutional iron cage" invented by mankind since the Enlightenment that can effectively control power. There is an urgent need to explore the "digital iron cage" of power control in the "three-dimensional world" to shape a new type of digital rule of law.

Finally, technical digital power. This mainly refers to the form and mechanism of power formed based on the dominance of digital technology. As it is difficult for state power to deeply intervene in the digital space in the traditional way, and the existing legal regulations are also hard to take effect, the governance of automated technologies represented by algorithm and code regulations has become an inevitable choice, and technological regulations are thus largely embedded in social order. For instance, smart contracts and automatic identification and processing systems based on blockchain are completely different from the "external" behavioral regulations within the traditional legal framework. Instead, they present themselves as an "internal" technical regulation. Moreover, for the programs, protocols and platforms of the Internet, they are themselves part of the regulation. The embedding of such technological regulations in social order undoubtedly demonstrates the compatibility and competition between human logic and technological logic.

Overall, these digital powers exhibit attributes, methods and capabilities that traditional powers in the "two-dimensional world" cannot reach. The first is integration, that is, these digital powers are all reorganized, transformed and synthesized through digital technology, thereby becoming a new type of power pattern that is integrated and highly radiating in the "three-dimensional world". The second is penetrability, which is similar to the penetrability of rights but in the opposite direction. That is, it plays the role of a "penetrator" in penetrative supervision and governance, while digital rights are mostly in the position of being "penetrated". The third is its concealment. That is, digital power exists more in the digital world, or at least operates through it. It is invisible and intangible but can intervene and influence people, things and events in the physical space-time. People often do not realize it or "know it but not why it is", forming a kind of "remote presence" and unobtrusive control. The fourth is automatism, that is, digital power can operate automatically in the form of code and algorithms to implement "digital and intelligent governance". The fifth is its iterative nature, meaning that digital power will evolve along with the advancement of digital technologies, and at a very fast pace. Sixth, it is diffusive. That is, the core mechanism of digital power is information processing and modeling computing. It has transcended the "physical form" of traditional power and presented the characteristics of intangibility, fluidity and diffuser. Its pursuit of refinement, granularity and penetration in digital and intelligent governance has shaped an "omnipresent" power ecosystem. Based on this, they have broken through the rules, procedures and constraint frameworks of the "two-dimensional world", and even use digital technology to compress, modify and reshape the existing legal rules and procedures. The automated administrative and digital judicial processes thus constructed are bound to have a tendency of "technical escape" where power is detached from the regulations. At the same time, the foundation of digital power is digital technology. Therefore, various "innovations" of digital power are difficult to predict and control in advance, and it is also hard to track and regulate them in the face of technological iteration. This indicates that the legal constraints on digital power cannot simply apply the legal framework and mechanism of the "two-dimensional world", but must be achieved by establishing a new framework and mechanism for digital rule of law.

2.3 Digital Justice

Justice is an eternal pursuit of human society, but people's understanding and perception of justice are diverse. The transition from traditional justice to digital justice is an objective requirement of the digital age.

2.3.1 Distributive justice in the "two-dimensional World"

As is well known, "giving everyone what they deserve" has undoubtedly been at the core of justice since ancient times. From Plato and Aristotle to Hegel and Rawls, discussions on justice mainly focused on the main thread of fair distribution and each getting what they deserve, while the content of justice shifted from property, identity and conditions to equality, freedom and rights. It reflects the pursuit of virtue in the "two-dimensional world", and its fundamental logic lies in: first, it is a logical inference based on the "allegory" of the physical world, just like the daily inferences that physicists make about the formation of the universe. The second is social distribution centered on material life. The third is the balance of justice in "physical ecology", that is, in terms of ecological elements and structure, its foundation is physical space-time, the center is the biological human being, and it also belongs to human beings. In terms of the perception of justice, law thus becomes a tool for scientifically understanding the principles of justice. In terms of the goal of justice, it has completely changed the traditional "three-step" approach that overly emphasizes life, freedom and property, enabling the law to ensure that everyone "meets the minimum requirements of a standard human life", thereby achieving a fair and reasonable just order. It is evident that traditional distributive justice is fundamentally dominated by "economic justice", centered on material distribution, guided by ethics, and aims to safeguard people's basic rights to survival and development. Therefore, it does not exceed the physical spatiotemporal conditions and the laws and boundaries of industrial and commercial life.

2.3.2 A just transformation oriented towards computing

With the formation of the "three-dimensional world", the digital way of human existence is bound to move towards digital justice and reflect its unique characteristics of The Times.

First of all, in terms of attributes, digital justice is computational justice. It does not directly allocate resources through physical circulation or human means, but rather implicitly matches resources and mobilizes behaviors through data information processing and algorithm control. This is mainly reflected in the processing, writing and design of data, code and algorithms. Through these computing processes and results, identities, opportunities, conditions and wealth are indirectly allocated, and the corresponding just consequences of equality, freedom and rights are generated, such as data profiling, face recognition, algorithmic dispatching, data gap, algorithmic prediction, precise push, etc. On the one hand, "Digital justice can enable 'proximity to justice' to be achieved without relying on physical, face-to-face environments or even being subject to human decisions." On the other hand, "When algorithms connect individuals in the virtual world with those in the real world, and link an individual's past, present and future, a one-off injustice may conceal a structural discrimination lock against the individual." This indicates that digital justice has taken on different connotations, systems and logics from traditional justice. Whether in terms of value judgments or protection methods, they are no longer comparable to the past.

Secondly, in terms of process, digital justice is based on cognitive computing. In the "three-dimensional world", there is no need to set up a "veil of ignorance" to make moral inferences based on justice principles. Instead, cognitive calculations can be conducted through the digital world to discover and analyze the existing "two-dimensional world", thereby bridging the gap between the subjective and the objective as well as between the mind and the body. On the other hand, digital justice is achieved through algorithmic decision-making and relying on technical procedures and regulatory mechanisms. It specifically reflects the value preferences and algorithmic quality (black box state and degree of "hegemony") contained in the calculation purpose, scope of calculation methods, calculation approaches, calculation processes, and settlement results. As well as the ethical orientation, technical benchmarks, constraint paths, etc. of the corresponding technical procedures and regulatory mechanisms. In this way, it can overcome the limitations of human brain decision-making in traditional justice, such as value preferences, cognitive abilities and decision-making levels. However, at the same time, algorithms have also become a new type of power and begun to define digital justice.

Finally, in terms of approach, digital justice is visual justice. It is based on the collection, mining and application of massive amounts of data, completing a major transformation from empirical judgment to panoramic perspective, which is conducive to resolving the previous problems of ambiguity, uncertainty and diversity in justice judgments. However, it also gives rise to a brand-new issue of visual justice. First, behind the government's super-capable policy implementation, merchants' precise marketing, and personalized service customization, "individuals are always visible and transparent, that is, fully open." Secondly, some digital fields often rely on certain established algorithmic technologies, which leads to the fact that an individual's identity narrative is always subject to some formulaic algorithmic rules. It places more emphasis on regularity rather than deviation, normativity rather than change, conformity to patterns rather than breaking them. Therefore, it also profoundly influences an individual's freedom of personality, equality, and the diversity of individual development - identity is trapped in the cage built by others. Thirdly, through the "filter bubble" formed by the Internet, an "information cocoon" has been created, providing a one-way perspective of the public (users) by those with technological advantages (algorithmic dominance), thereby generating an invisible manipulation ability that is covert, controlling and evades supervision, leading the public (users) to be trapped in a completely unknown, Platonic "cave-like" glass house. This has led us into an extremely profound social situation of lack of freedom, inequality and injustice, and we are trapped in a computing system that is constantly tightening and becoming overly competitive. It is evident that, unlike the ambiguity, uncertainty and diversity of traditional justice, digital justice is also confronted with social risks such as unidirectionality, visibility and manipulability. Based on this, promoting equality in digital capabilities, curbing algorithmic discrimination and injustice, preventing digital control, restricting the abuse of digital power, and opposing "digital colonization" and "digital hegemony" have become important tasks in building a "community of digital civilization" for mankind.

2.3.3 Focus on the fairness of the system

The foundation of traditional justice lies in value consensus, life experience and rational judgment. However, in the judicial process, it is basically achieved through individual case judgments by judicial officers within the framework of territorial or hierarchical jurisdiction, which leaves room for crimes such as false litigation, loan sharking and "accident fraud". Nowadays, digital prosecution and digital courts, through big data analysis, data collision and association, intelligent judgment and other means, can promptly discover, identify and sanction problems that were previously difficult to detect in individual case handling within digital systems, thereby achieving systematic fairness and justice.

From the above, it can be seen that if the industrial and commercial era was a kind of distributive justice based on moral reasoning and ethical measurement, then the digital age is a kind of matching justice based on modeling calculation, visual analysis and precise allocation. The core lies in the sharing and control of data information, the fairness and rationality of algorithmic decisions, and the legitimacy of human-machine relationships. It fundamentally embodies the dual demands of "just calculation" and "justice in calculation". It is the direction guidance of moral ethics for technological logic and the boundary setting of the order of the digital society by the value of justice.

3. Building an independent digital legal knowledge system in China

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward the strategic positioning and development blueprint of "Chinese-style modernization", which urgently requires the construction of a corresponding independent knowledge system of China. Given the particularity of law itself, building an independent legal knowledge system requires extracting innovative propositions for the construction of "Digital China" and "Law-based China", and forming "Chinese solutions" and "Chinese wisdom" that can be shared and learned from. Digital jurisprudence precisely represents the digital aspect of China's independent legal knowledge system.

3.1 The Era Mission and Responsibility of Digital Law

From the perspective of international community consensus, it is of great significance to place human autonomy and human rights at the center of affairs in the digital space. This is also the core proposition of digital law. Therefore, digital law is bound to bear two important missions and responsibilities of The Times.

On the one hand, distill the legal propositions in "Chinese-style modernization". Chinese-style modernization is not only a highly condensed summary of China's experience in transformation and development over the past century, but also a scientific design of the blueprint for future development. Today, China's digital economy is at the forefront of global development. As a result, we have encountered problems and challenges similar to those of Western developed countries, or even those they have never faced before, in the process of digital development. Moreover, we have achieved many significant accomplishments in new business forms and models, new systems and mechanisms, as well as in the construction of digital rule of law. This requires timely proposition refinement, theoretical elevation and systematic interpretation, exploring the "Chinese-style" digital rule of law mechanism and digital legal theory, so as to achieve major breakthroughs in The Times and theoretical transcendence.

On the other hand, it provides impetus and support for building an independent legal knowledge system in China. In terms of law, since the late Qing Dynasty, modern legal concepts and systems from the West have been "imitated" and borrowed. This undoubtedly played a significant role in promoting our country's pursuit of modernization and integration into the global economic development trend, but it also placed us in a "latecomer" position of dependence and catch-up in terms of theoretical resources and discourse power. But the digital age has created a good opportunity for us to move from "following" to "keeping pace". Digital law studies have become an important theoretical platform for distilling the innovative achievements of China's digital systems, elevating the propositions of China's digital transformation, and exploring contemporary digital governance models and laws. It is a key breakthrough for building an independent legal knowledge system in China, providing core impetus and fundamental support for it, and thereby offering value coordinates and theoretical guidance for digital transformation and the construction of digital rule of law. It can also provide necessary theoretical resources for the cultivation of high-end legal talents in the digital age.

3.2 Build a knowledge system of digital law based on the three core categories

Constructing a knowledge system of digital law based on core categories is an inevitable requirement and important foundation for digital law to undertake the mission of The Times. It mainly includes: First, starting from digital rights, the attributes, methods, operation rules and interrelationships of digital power, explore and construct the basic principles and theories of digital law, explain the power restraint, rights protection and order operation mechanism in the "three-dimensional world", shape the "digital iron cage" of power control and define the boundaries of rights and interests; Second, starting from the basic scope, weighing criteria and principle goals of digital justice, explore the construction of the value scale and behavioral coordinates of digital rule of law, and provide digital humanistic and directional guidance for the governance order of the "three-dimensional world". Thirdly, starting from the coupling structure, functional system and interactive effectiveness of the "three-dimensional world", explore the construction of a new era digital due process theory, providing mechanism support and reliable guarantee for constraining digital power, protecting digital rights and maintaining digital justice. Fourth, starting from the core scope of digital law, explore the construction of a "Chinese-style" digital rule of law system, continuously promote the construction and development of digital rule of law theory, digital legal norms, digital rule of law implementation, digital rule of law supervision and digital rule of law guarantee, and provide theoretical solutions for the "Chinese picture" of digital rule of law construction.

Of course, any change is built on the foundation of past development, and digital law cannot start anew without modern law. In fact, the physical world and the spiritual world remain important foundations of human life and are core components of the "three-dimensional world". Therefore, many current legal norms and their theories are still valid and can be inherited and absorbed to connect with the digital age, thereby achieving the optimized integration and transformation and reshaping of digital law and modern law, and forming an upgraded version of modern law.

3.3 Innovative and independent digital legal theory

To explore and innovate the digital legal theory of autonomy, three fundamental principles must be followed: First, it should be based on the legal logic of the "three-dimensional world" and the laws of digital social life; Second, it is the innovative practice of digital rule of law rooted in China, embodying the long-standing wisdom of the Chinese civilization. Third, fully inherit and absorb the effective theoretical resources of modern law. With the disruptive transformation and overall transition from the "two-dimensional world" to the "three-dimensional world", many fundamental or core legal propositions need to be fundamentally reshaped and ontologically reconstructed. It mainly includes

First, the theory of digital human rights. After entering the digital age, the original human rights concepts, principles, scopes, fields and protection methods are all facing severe challenges to digital survival. If it is said that in traditional human rights theories and fields, China and the West have always held the "first-mover" advantage in discourse power, then today's digital human rights has made leading contributions in China's theoretical research, thereby changing China's passive situation in international human rights discourse. This urgently requires vigorous promotion of theoretical research on digital human rights based on digital personality and digital capabilities, making it an important part of digital law.

Secondly, digital rule of law theory. Modern rule of law is based on a "two-dimensional world", while digital rule of law is built on a "three-dimensional world". In other words, it should shift from the physical subject-object binary opposition logic to the digital subject-object inclusive logic. Shift from the traditional binary framework of government and citizens to a ternary balanced system of digital government, platform and digital citizens; The empirical rational logic abstracted from the "people, things and events" in business and industrial life has shifted to the computational rational logic of information processing in digital life, etc. Therefore, while embracing and absorbing modern rule of law, it is inevitable to achieve a directional reshaping in the digital age, including the basic scope of digital rule of law, the core values of digital rule of law, the digital rule of law system, the operation of digital rule of law, and the order of digital rule of law, etc. This is an important mission of the current legal community.

Thirdly, the theory of digital justice. The theory of digital justice reflects the principles of interest calculation and order goals in the digital society. For China, it is necessary to uphold the core socialist values, the "Digital China" strategy, and the value concept of a digital community with a shared future, to construct a theory of digital justice that meets the development requirements of the digital age and the global digital contract norms, and to establish computational justice centered on data information. This will promote the transformation and development of global digital rule of law.

Fourth, digital justice theory. The modern judicial process presents justice through venues (courts) in a physically "close" way, while digital justice presents justice through scenarios (online) in a digitally "visible" way. In recent years, China has made numerous innovative explorations in areas such as digital prosecution, digital courts, digital policing, and digital discipline inspection and supervision, thereby promoting the transformation from "approaching justice" to "digital justice". The digital judicial theory refined and elevated from this is also a vivid and important part of digital law.

3.4 Building a civilized community of digital rule of law

As the global digital transformation continues to accelerate and deepen, digital rule of law has also become a universal requirement of the new order.

First, the construction of digital rule of law should be based on the values of a "digital civilization community". If the core of the operation of agricultural civilization is power and that of industrial and commercial civilization is property, then the core of the operation of digital civilization is information. It presents expression and order construction through data and algorithms, and shapes "digital humans" and "digital civilization communities". Therefore, the construction of digital rule of law should establish a system and operational mechanism for digital rights, digital power and digital justice in the "three-dimensional world", providing value support and order guarantee for the "Digital civilization Community". This is not only an important open feature of Chinese-style modernization, but also indicates that China is an important participant and contributor to the Global Digital Compact.

Second, we should join hands to confront the challenges of global digital transformation and the rule of law. Cyber governance, cross-border data, the digital divide, and the risks of artificial intelligence are not issues that a single country can confront alone. Instead, they require cooperation and response based on the concepts of a community with a shared future for mankind and a community of digital civilizations, to build a global digital governance order that safeguards digital rights, controls digital power, and upholds digital justice. This is precisely the value guidance of the United Nations' Global Digital Compact and the "Digital Cooperation Roadmap".

Third, foreign-related rule of law requires extensive international cooperation and global governance featuring extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. At present, China's comprehensive national strength has ranked among the top in the world's development. This inevitably requires us to play an increasingly important role and function in the international social order and global governance. And foreign-related rule of law is undoubtedly an important support and powerful guarantee for promoting international cooperation, unblocking the Belt and Road Initiative, safeguarding the legitimate interests of overseas countries, and promoting extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. Such as the Digital Silk Road, cross-border e-commerce, cyber security, digital cooperation, and risk prevention and control of large models, all need to be incorporated into the framework of foreign-related rule of law, so as to actively implement the Global Digital Compact and promote digital justice. This can also better leverage China's initiative and say in the construction of the international digital order, and promote the international dissemination and mutual learning of China's independent legal knowledge system.

4. Conclusion

The "Three Meanings" in the Diamond Sutra state as follows: The Buddha said that the world is not the world, and thus it is called the world. Similarly, the evolution of law from the "one-dimensional world" to the "three-dimensional world" also demonstrates the iteration of people's understanding of the "legal world". In summary, the digital society has broken through the "two-dimensional world" life pattern of the industrial and commercial society. "The tall buildings of the digital world rise from the ground up", forming the survival methods and behavioral patterns in the "three-dimensional world". In this way, it becomes difficult to simply apply the framework system of modern law to explain and solve the problems of digital legal relations and order. At this point, digital law emerged. It gave rise to the categories of digital rights, digital power and digital justice that are both different from and interwoven with traditional concepts, and thus became an important innovative field in the construction of China's independent legal knowledge system. Be able to contribute "Chinese wisdom" and "Chinese solutions" to the development of global digital rule of law. Based on this, when it comes to digital law, we should neither position it from a micro disciplinary perspective nor a meso field perspective, but rather examine it from a macro perspective of the development of The Times. It presents an evolutionary process from traditional law to modern law and then to digital law. This evolution undoubtedly provides a broad space for innovation in legal research and endows it with a brand-new theoretical mission, but it also faces complex contemporary challenges and arduous reconstruction tasks. This requires the joint efforts of one or even several generations of scholars to achieve. Perhaps it is a process that is constantly evolving and developing. In any case, digital law was created based on the deep drive of the digital age and is fundamentally the contemporary expression of the operational logic of the "three-dimensional world".