How can good administration be digitalised? A challenge to legal Scholarship

Digitalisation has reached public administration. Especially the legal effects of digitalisation are being hotly debated in both academic and political discourses. Can rights be put into action effectively in a digital public environment? In Finland, automated decision-making (ADM) in public administration is nothing new per se, neither in the Everyday of public administration nor in legal scholarship. However, Automation projects have proliferated lately, while the long-term effects of ADM remain unclear. The fragmented nature of the debate on digitalisation, whether framed as a problem of eg data protection, artificial intelligence, legal theory, or critical algorithm studies,makes it difficult to detect larger trends and to react to them. The authors contribute to this debate from the viewpoint of good administration. Can the different generations of the goodness of administration: formal, material, procedural, be digitalised? Digitalisation is discussed both as a matter of theory and of practice. The authors argue that, on one hand, digitalisation has the potential to challenge the doctrinal basis of administrative law. On the other hand, however, it allows for its critical appraisal. To that end, it is necessary to recognize digitalisation as both a megatrend and a context-specific concern. This, in turn, enables a discursive turn. Regulating digital administration should not only prevent harm but also strengthen the effectiveness of rights and access to justice. The authors call for interdisciplinary research: Before going digital, it is vital to examine critically the many implications ADM has on law in general, on administrative law more specifically, and ultimately, on society itself.