Legal infrastructure and urban networks for just and democratic smart cities

This article positions itself within the urban law and policy scholarship as a contribution to the creation of a subsection of this body of law, the urban law of services and assets. It shows that in three kind of urban infrastructure and networks (i.e. transport, energy, digital) there is growing attention towards a new general legal principle of urban law, the principle of tech justice which can be the center pillar of a more comprehensive legal infrastructure, the internet of humans. This legal infrastructure is necessary if public authorities want to design and shape just and democratic smart cities. Concepts like the Internet of Things, Internet of Everything and Internet of People suggest that objects, devices, and people will be increasingly inter-connected through digital infrastructure able to generate a growing gathering of data. At the same time, the literature on smart city and sharing city celebrate them as urban policy visions that by relying heavily on new technologies bear the promise of efficient and thriving cities. When addressing the impact of technological innovations, law and policy scholarship has either focused on questions related to privacy, discrimination, security, or issues related to the production and use of big data, digital public services, egovernment. Little attention has been paid to the disruptive impact of technological development on urban governance and city inhabitants’ rights of equal access, participation, management and even ownership, in order to understand whether and how technology can also enhance the protection of human rights and social justice in the city.