Chapter 1 discusses of the evolution of experiments, illustrating this development through the field of political science. The author argues that the discipline currently finds itself in a new era, parts of which apply to all of the social sciences. This new era began around 2010 and reflects the confluence of experiments achieving widespread acceptance in the discipline, technological advances, and the open science movement (these latter two dynamics have affected all of the social sciences). The era introduces many opportunities but also novel challenges. Ironically, the ease of conducting experiments today has the potential to undermine their quality. I conclude the chapter by discussing the motivation for the primer and reviewing the remainder of the book.

The law as a structural system attempting to stabilize the social order is confronted with far-reaching technological advances that have the potential to undermine traditional normative principles. Particularly in a digital and globalized environment, a broader and better coordinated rule-making approach is needed. Legal interoperability as process of making normative rules cooperate across jurisdictions to avoid a fragmented landscape gains importance. In view of the technological innovations an appropriate international framework for the data-driven world should implement three basic regulatory principles, namely (i) transparency, (ii) accountability, and (iii) safety and robustness, leading to trust and traceability. Furthermore, such a framework must contribute to the avoidance of distortions caused (i) by an anticompetitive behavior of market dominant enterprises, (ii) by a not justified denial of network neutrality, and (iii) by the imposition of inappropriate data localization rules. A new digital trade regime overcoming the outdated goods’ and services’ classifications and encompassing international regulatory cooperation is also needed in view of overcoming the present tensions in WTO law and of developing an appropriate framework for digital assets. The new business models with tokenized values must become part of the trade rule framework with regulatory elements being an enabler of digital innovation.

The rise of the sharing economy and destabilization of property are embedded in social, economic and technological developments. This chapter describes the decline of stability in the new millennium. It reviews the processes that inspire or trigger the move to flexibility and mobility in property use. Four developments are analyzed: The Great Recession, technological advances (including online work, intellectual property, and online relationships), generational attitudes, and consumers' distrust of big corporations.