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

所有类型的规则越来越多地由技术机制执行；从基于代码的共享数字文件限制，到十字路口的红灯摄像头，再到监控在线活动的软件程序。技术执行机制对政策制定者有吸引力，因为机器比人类更完美地执行规则；由于执行者和被执行者的自由裁量权、动机和偏见，人类的执法更加混乱。因此，技术规则的执行似乎通过最小化人为因素和强制遵守规则来缩小规则与实践之间的差距。本项目探讨了技术执法制度如何通过创造新的社会争论场所、使新的各方相互谈判以及恢复利益相关者的利益，重新定位和重塑“书本上”规则与“实地”实践之间的差距。采用多种方法，包括采访关键利益相关者、分析档案文件和分析监管摘要，在卡车司机工作时间的背景下探索这些动态。几十年来，卡车司机一直使用易于伪造的纸质日志记录他们的工作时间，因为联邦法规出于安全原因限制了他们的工作时间。新的规定将要求司机的时间由集成在卡车上的电子设备自动监控，从而迫使司机遵守计时规则。本项目考察了影响执法实践的法律规则和技术能力的共同演变，以及在使用这些系统时，雇员、雇主和执法部门之间的社会关系被重新配置的方式。借鉴法律研究和组织社会学的学术成果，该项目更新和重新定位了我们对无处不在的计算时代的监管、执法和自由裁量权的理解。该项目促进了关于技术监控在法律规则制定和社会生活中的作用的广泛社会辩论，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.