New Delhi, July 15 -- There is a long-standing view that law is part of the natural order of society. Thinkers like Aristotle and Cicero believed human laws mirrored the laws of nature. Hobbes claimed that society itself was made possible by law, while Locke argued that legal norms arose from a moral order preceding them. Yet, in practice, much of what governs us today has not evolved from timeless principles, but in continual response to technology and the disruptions it introduces.

The Industrial Revolution led the first major transformation of society on the whole. It replaced human power with mechanical and spawned a number of 'macro-inventions' that changed how society operated. As machines replaced human labour, the accidents and i...