Interpreting code – Adapting the methodology to analyze the normative contents of law for the analysis of technology

In 1999, Lawrence Lessig published a since famous analogy, framed in the catchphrase “Code is Law”. By this he meant the normative dimensions that technology and legal norms both inherited. But how can the normative content of code be unveiled? And if code really is law, can they not both be treated and interpreted in just the same way? Legal science in civil law systems has come up with a profound analytic methodology to interpret legal norms hermeneutically and thus to find the normative meaning of law. Scholars working on the relation between technology and human behavior at this point struggle with the lack of a shared language, making it difficult to articulate their findings and opinions on normative content of technology. They can benefit from this discursive basis in an ensuing discourse by strengthening their results of code interpretation by applying the tools provided in this paper to rationalize their argumentation and make discrepancies with the interpretations of others visible. Through the proposed methodology of code analysis they can also find relevant questions for further empirical investigation.