Editor’s Preface

It is widely acknowledged that the sociology of law was born and developed in the context of the wave of modernisation sweeping the world.The modern codification movement marked by the Code Napoleon was to a significant extent dedicated to the unification and overall control in the sense of "Pannomion," leading to an increasingly closed-loop operation of the normative system.The most typical manifestation of this trend is the conceptual jurisprudence theory in Germany.In response to the "one-sided logic" and authoritarian bias of Georg Puchta and his ilk, there was a rebellion in the legal circles of Western Europe to revise and transform the modern legal system and its theoretical form, thus the Freirechtsbewegung promoted by Eugen Ehrlich and the construction of the theoretical system of the sociology of law came into being.It goes without saying that Ehrlich's theory aims to construct a complex system of law composed of multiple elements.The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry are awarded to the discoveries and inventions of artificial intelligence technology and its scientific applications, causing widespread astonishment and making it clearer to everyone that we are in the midst of an artificial intelligence digital revolution.The wave of digitisation is sweeping across Asia and the globe, driving significant social transformation.In Asia, modernisation and digitisation are actually progressing in tandem and complementing each other, creating a fascinating duet.Therefore, the sociology of law must confront the opportunities and challenges of this digital transformation.In the digital age, complexity, paradoxes, interactions, code frameworks, scoring systems, algorithm design, and virtual community rules are ubiquitous, and legal pluralism is bound to further exert its influence.It is therefore necessary to reconceptualise the scholarly tradition of the sociology of law since Ehrlich Era within the rapidly changing context and explore the innovation of research paradigms on this basis.Based on the above understanding, I initiated a collection on Asian law and digital transformation, which fortunately received positive responses from many researchers in different countries.I would like to take this opportunity to express my respect and gratitude to all the contributors.The seven articles published here, cover the phenomena and institutions of China, India, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and other countries geographically, and also cover a wide range of topics including digital sovereignty, digital human rights, digital rule of law, algorithmic power, digital platforms, metaverse, blockchain, data regulation, cross-border data flow, etc., which comprehensively show the current status and trends of Asian law and social changes in the digital age, and also raise many issues worthy of further discussion.My thesis "The Transmutation of Sovereignty: Digital 'World of Warcraft' and Innovation in the Chinese Legal Order" takes the game of "Algorithmic" and "digital behemoths" as the problem situation, examines the principles of digitisation as a new way to modernisation