The Legal Regulation Approaches for the Cities of Future: from Smart Meters to Smart Homes

The article off ers a conceptual analysis of regulatory approaches to smart city technologies in Russia, tracing their evolution from isolated, fragmentary legal acts to strategic system-level policy documents. Based on an analysis of current legislation, the author identifi es three stages in the development of legal regulation in this fi eld: initial targeted norm-setting, departmental standardization of smart homes, and the emergence of a comprehensive system of legal regulation. The central systemic problem of the existing regulatory model is identifi ed as its sectoral, agency-based character, whereby each subsystem of the smart city (intelligent metering, building management, data processing, cybersecurity) operates within its own isolated regulatory framework without mechanisms for inter-system interaction. Specifi c legal gaps are examined, including: regulatory asymmetry between intelligent meters for diff erent resources, uncertainty regarding the civil-law status of the smart home as an object of rights, the legal vacuum surrounding data in Internet of Things ecosystems, and the fundamental lack of regulation for the city’s digital twin.
As a solution, the author proposes a multi-level regulatory concept structured across three tiers: the infrastructural level (technological standards and safety requirements), the platform level (legal regime for data, digital platforms, and operators), and the service level (digital services, algorithmic management, and mechanisms for protecting citizens’ rights). It is concluded that this concept can serve as a basis for drafting a special framework law that would regulate smart city technologies in an integrated manner.

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