Reinventing “Magic Circle” in the Age of Internet Government Control: the Lessons of Videogame Law for Modern Practices of Legal Interpretation

Abstract

The restrictions for disseminating certain kinds of information that is considered publicly offensive and (or) dangerous has made topical a fundamental problem of the limits of reasonable interpretation and application of law to the contexts that could be characterized as virtual, playful or otherwise non-serious. From the standpoint of interdisciplinary approach including mostly philosophy of law and game studies, the underlying problem reflected in the representative examples above, has substantial similarities with the “magic circle” concept studied in the research direction that is conventionally called “videogame law”. However, existing theories of magic circle, both in game studies and law, are not satisfactory to resolve this problem. The article suggests that the solution can be found in theoretical sociology concept of “generalized symbolic media”. If an object of social relationship is an “external referent of value” of such media and has convertible “socio-currency value”, this means that such object is significant enough to be included into the scope of legal regulation. However, for the application of law to be appropriate without doubt, such an object should also share functional similarity with the core meaning of the relevant legal norm. Together, these two criteria, conventionally designated as “the criterion of seriousness” and “the criterion of reality”, are necessary and sufficient to assert that interpretation and application of law is not absurd, but reasonable in cases related to virtual reality that is characterized by possibility to include simulation that is out of scope of law.