Need to accept challenges of technology and move ahead: Attorney General

CHENNAI: Stating that technology has become indispensable, though no part of it is free from abuse, Attorney-General R Venkataramani on Saturday stressed the imperative need to accept the challenges and move ahead.

Its abuse could be similar to a knife used in the kitchen or for murder. But it should be ensured that laws are worthy of compliance and balancing, he said.

"Our responsibility in engagement and in articulating regulations and refining rule of laws increases (now)," he said in his address at the thirteenth convocation of the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University that was presided over by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi, who is the Chancellor of the University.

"The study of law, like the study of science, is more of exploration. We need to pay attention to how this connection is important in practice in all spheres. In other words if you are not trained in a special way of the times relevant to law, then you are not fully equipped," he said.

Speaking on the challenges, the Attorney-General said in an age of AI technology, opinions and doubts or validity could be "easily and infectiously generated."

This was where the responsibility in engagement and in articulating regulations and refining rule of laws increased, he said.

The future of the legal profession is likely to be different as one will be more "conditioned by technology" which we could not reverse. "Our personal information notebooks are both in public and private spaces. And our government institution cannot function without them (technology)," he said.

Venkataramani further said that every law in all spheres of life demanded and required varied compliance and it might be domestic violence law, environmental law or information technology law, law relating to drugs or relating to economic security and so on.

"No part of technology is free from abuse. A knife can be used in the kitchen and for killing. The internet and cyber spaces are like Jekyll and Hyde (a non-fiction novel by R L Steenson)," he said.

As the students moved to a different "machine age" both the study and practice of law would be fundamentally different, he added.