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Abstract: From December 3 to 5, 2017, the 4^th World Internet Conference was held at Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province. 1500 persons who are chief persons of international organizations, Internet enterprise leaders, Internet celebrities, experts and scholars and from five continents in the world gathered in this ancient town, conducted international dialog around the subject of “Developing Digital Economy for Openness and Shared Benefits — Building a Community of Common Future in Cyberspace”, shared the global experience of Internet development and contributed Chinese wisdom to the global Internet governance. At the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter, and Secretary Wang Huning attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. Liu Guangchao, Director of Beijing DOCVIT Law Firm and Secretary General of Green Legal Global Alliance, attended the conference, and delivered a keynote speech in the sub-forum “Digital Economy Development Trend Forum”.

In the congratulatory letter, President Xi Jinping stressed that, “currently, a new round of scientific and industrial revolution represented by information technology is burgeoning, and injects strong dynamics for economic and social development. In the meantime, internet development also brings many new challenges to the sovereignty, security and development interests of all the countries in the world. China’s digital economy will enter the faster development track. Now, digital economy plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating new growth points and forming the new momentum. But, at the same time, digital economy which is based on Internet, big data, AI and other technologies still faces a lot of cyber security issues and digital finance risks and is in urgent need of the protection of relevant laws.”

In this context, Director Liu Guangchao delivered a keynote speech with the theme of Protecting Innovation, Normalizing Order: The Mission of Law in the Development of Digital Economy. Director Liu Guangchao generally interpreted the forms, features and essence of digital economy from the legal perspective, and introduced the legal fields involved in the digital economy. He said that, “As an emerging economic form worldwide, digital economy has extensive connection with unfair competition, intellectual property right, cyber infringement, Internet security and other fields due to its independence, equality, openness, competition and other features.” Director Liu also analyzed the huge challenges of law formed by digital economy at the levels of conventional legislation, judicial administration and law enforcement by starting from the digital economy development status quo, and then introduced two missions of law in the digital economy development.

Director Liu Guangchao said that, “the first mission of law in the digital economy development is to “protect innovation”. digital economy needs protection and regulation from law in terms of innovation dynamics, innovation process, innovation fruits as well as innovation replication and promotion. From the legal perspective, first, it should fulfill the protection of innovation in digital economy through legislation’s nature of forward-looking and creativity; second, at the judicial level, it is encouraged to recognize the digital economy innovation through judicial precedent and other forms; finally, there are laws to abide by upon law enforcement should be fulfilled so as to protect the digital economy innovation in an all-round way and from multiple angles and escort it in its healthy and benign development.”

“In addition, the second mission of law in the digital economy development lies in “normalized order”, embodied in economic entities, economic behaviors and economic outcomes.” said Director Liu Guangchao, “according to the data provided by the National Internet Financial Risks Analysis Technical Platform, China’s Internet Finance achieved rapid and large-scale development last year, but plenty of non-negligible financial risks occurred also. Thus, it is imminent to bring into play the strength of law in effectively regulating the digital economy development. relevant departments should consider four aspects, i.e. laying down rules, leading development, clarifying the property right and cracking down illegality.”

Finally, Director Liu interpreted how to grasp the scale and normalize the boundary of digital economy order. He emphasized that, “to effectively normalize the digital economy development, it should clarify and properly grasp the boundary and scale of three relations, i.e. law and economy, legal acts and digital economy activities, legitimacy and illegality. digital economy is at the forefront of development., and platform economy is the general trend of development. But, along with further fission and polymerization, it is difficult to fulfill effective governance only by single force.” “Adapting to the development trend of the era and intensifying the important role of law in normalizing the digital economy development and promoting social governance will not only conduce to the safe, healthy and sustainable development of digital economy, but also make contribution to promoting the modernization of national governance system and capacity,” said Director Liu Guangchao.