Origin and development of digital rights

Abstract

In 2021, humanity faces a digital age with "almost" no digital rights. The world's paradigms have shifted. Human beings are facing alterations that, from mindsets to the economy, culture, politics and even the cognitive basis of our identity, profoundly change the axes of how we organise our living together. They even alter our very way of being. And all this without an environment of legal certainty to lead us through the transition from the analogue to the digital era. This is where the all-important role of digital rights emerges. This paper addresses the context, concept and developments of this new generation of rights, taking into account their current codification in the Organic Law 3/2018, of 5 December, on Personal Data Protection and the guarantee of digital rights, as well as the novelties that will be incorporated in the Spanish Digital Rights Charter, currently in its final drafting phase. Finally, the next steps in the evolution of digital rights are examined, an evolution that could even lead in the medium term to the creation of a new jurisdictional order for digital legal disputes adapted to the procedures and resolution times of the digital world.