Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Automation of Compliance: Techno-Legal Regulation in the United States Trucking Industry

所有类型的规则都越来越多地通过技术机制来执行；从基于代码的共享数字文件的限制，到十字路口的闯红灯摄像头，再到监控在线活动的软件程序。技术执行制度吸引了政策制定者，因为机器比人类更完美地执行规则；由于执行者和执行者的自由裁量权、激励和偏见，人类的执行更加混乱。因此，通过最大限度地减少人为因素并强制遵守规则，技术规则的执行似乎缩小了规则与实践之间的差距。该项目探索了技术执行制度如何通过创建新的社会竞争场所、让新的各方相互谈判以及恢复利益相关者的利益，实际上如何重新定位和重塑“书面”规则和“实地”做法之间的差距。使用包括采访关键利益相关者、分析档案文件和分析监管文件在内的多种方法，在卡车司机的工作时间背景下探索这些动态。几十年来，卡车司机一直使用容易伪造的纸质日志来记录他们的工作时间，出于安全原因，他们的工作时间受到联邦法规的限制。新的法规将要求司机的时间由集成在卡车上的电子设备自动监控，从而迫使司机遵守守时规则。这个项目研究了法律规则和技术能力的共同演变，这些规则和技术能力塑造了执法实践，以及当使用这样的系统时，雇员、雇主和执法之间的社会关系是如何重新配置的。这个项目借鉴了法律研究和组织社会学的学术知识，更新并重新定位了我们对无所不在的计算时代的监管、执法和自由裁量权的理解。该项目有助于就技术监督在法律规则制定和社会生活中的作用进行广泛的社会辩论，并将引起多个学科的受众、政策制定者和组织的兴趣。

Rules of all types are increasingly enforced by technological mechanisms; from code-based restrictions on sharing digital files, to red-light cameras at intersections, to software programs that monitor activity online. Technological enforcement regimes appeal to policymakers because machines enforce rules more perfectly than humans do; human enforcement is messier due to the discretion, incentives, and biases of both enforcers and enforcees. Technological rule enforcement, then, appears to close the gap between rule and practice by minimizing the human element and compelling compliance with a rule. This project explores how technological enforcement regimes may, in fact, relocate and reshape gaps between "on the books" rules and "on the ground" practices by creating new sites of social contestation, bringing new parties into negotiation with one another, and resituating stakeholders' interests.Using a combination of methods, including interviewing key stakeholders, analyzing documents in archives, and analyzing regulatory dockets, these dynamics are explored in the context of truck drivers' work time. For decades, truckers have kept track of their work hours, which are limited by federal regulations for safety reasons, using easily falsified paper logs. New regulations would mandate that drivers' time be automatically monitored by electronic devices integrated into trucks themselves, thus compelling drivers' compliance with timekeeping rules. This project examines the co-evolution of legal rules and technological capacities that shape enforcement practices, and the ways in which social relationships among employees, employers, and law enforcement are reconfigured when such systems are used.Drawing from scholarship in legal studies and organizational sociology, this project updates and reorients our understanding of regulation, enforcement, and discretion for the age of ubiquitous computing. The project contributes to broad social debates about the role of technological surveillance in legal rulemaking and in social life, and will be of interest to audiences in multiple academic disciplines, to policymakers, and to organizations.