Abstract The quantitative evaluation approach to the rule of law provides concrete “data” that make it no longer abstract, reforming radically the traditional research and practice model related to the rule of law. Digitization provides the technical means for quantifying the rule of law and gives birth to a new form of the rule of law, namely, the digital rule of law. The digital rule of law has three major characteristics: wisdom, precision, and efficiency. It is a leap from the development of the quantitative rule of law to the stage of digital transformation, the ongoing institutional practice, and the social space domain state. Data is the core element of the digital rule of law. The digital rule of law is an aspect of the rule of law system engineering. Big data is the soul of the digital rule of law, which creates the conditions for the theoretical paradigm and practical innovation of the quantitative rule of law. The innovation of the rule of law system engineering theory is the ontological task of the theoretical innovation of the digital rule of law, and “the practical rule of law view + the effective rule of law view + the systematic rule of law view” is the feasible path of the theoretical innovation of the digital rule of law. The application scenario of the digital rule of law provides an experimental field for the digital rule of law theory. The application of scenarios is manifested in open thinking to promote scientific and democratic legislation, precise thinking to enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement, efficient thinking to promote judicial reform, and empowerment thinking to enhance people’s sense of access to the rule of law. As a form of the quantitative rule of law expression, the rule of law index can meet the digital rule of law needs, such as the standardization of the rule of law data, the precision of data application, and the real-time risk warning. The Digital rule of law faces three major challenges: institution supply, data sharing, and data security. First, the digital rule of law needs to be built based on formal and informal institutions. The formal institution design should consider the institutional needs of policies, superior laws, special regulations, interpretative rules, regional norms, supplementary regulations, and other levels. Informal digital institutional change has to overcome the difficulties of digital conceptual disconnect. Second, to solve the data sharing problem, we need to start from three aspects: mechanism, interests, and technology. The data-sharing mechanism of the rule of law needs to set up a sharing model of “separation of powers” and establish an integrated digital rule of law platform in the province. The main goal of data sharing is to break the monopoly and seek a balance between the interests of different groups to build a coordination mechanism for data opening, establish a fair and reasonable pattern of interest distribution, and make each participating public feel the fairness and justice. Third, data security governance should be systematized, standardized and normalized. Systematization is an essential requirement of data governance and an important task in implementing the overall national security concept.Standardization is the logical extension and inevitable point of systematization and is an important basis for securing network data security. Normalization is the basic pattern of data security governance, and normalization of risk assessment is a logical extension of standardization. Systematic research on the digital rule of law is a theoretical response to the innovative practice of the rule of law in the digital era, a predictive portrayal of the new rule of law form being formed, and an academic plan based on the theoretical logic of paradigm shift and the practical logic of the rule of law system engineering.
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