Introduction
For many, the internet has become an essential part of our lives. While the law at one time distinguished between traditional legal issues and "cyber" issues, the law is evolving to encompass many computer topics, often times with unique policies. International internet law is a somewhat young area of the law, one which is in continual flux based on any number of events such as international conflicts, privacy and surveillance issues, cybercrime and cyberwarfare, and economic developments. While countries grapple with how best to regulate cyberlaw within their own borders, international internet law lacks comprehensive conventions and codes. But do not despair. While issues such as governance of the internet are unique and require specific discussion, researchers may look to traditional international legal topics for guidance on international internet law issues.
This guide is intended to help those unfamiliar with international cyberlaw discover general sources, and once a background has been established, indicate resources on more focused areas of international internet Law. The guide is not intended to teach substantive law, but the framework within which the law is disseminated. This guide will not deal with issues regarding U.S. internet law.
Note: Many, if not all, of the resources in this section will provide a good background of international internet law. Within this background discussion the issue of governing and regulating the internet will be considered.
Print Sources
Below are a few selected works, available in the that provide good overviews of the issues concerning international internet law. This is not an exhaustive list and new materials are always being created to keep up with rapidly changing internet technologies. You are encouraged to look for updated materials through Clio (the Columbia University online catalog) and Pegasus (the Law Libray's specific catalog).
International Internet Law by Call Number: K7625 .K85 2012ISBN: 0415674689Publication Date: 2012-03-08Beginning with jurisdictional issues, moving to sources of international internet law, and ending with a discussion on international governance issues, International Internet Law provides an excellent overview of many of the questions this relatively new area of the law faces. The book looks at who controls the internet and how, through multiple perspectives. The authors primarily focus on developments from the European Union (EU) but compare and contrast similar policies from the U.S. and Asia (China and Singapore).- Internet Law in a Nutshell byCall Number: KF390.5.C6 R87 2009ISBN: 9780314195227Publication Date: 2009-02-02This book provides a quick introduction to numerous internet law topics including trademarks, torts, privacy, and transnational and jurisdictional issues. Especially notable is the overview of the internet and a discussion of many of the common technical acronyms used. Before diving into more complicated technical policy materials, make sure to skim this book, or at least have it close by. The book begins with a review of the history, technology, and competing theories of the Internet that enables a deeper understanding of case law and statutory developments discussed in the substantive chapters.
Global Internet Law in a Nutshell by Call Number: KF390.5.C6 R87 2019ISBN: 9781684671281Publication Date: 2019-08-05Global Internet Law in a Nutshell surveys the historical, technological, and cultural impacts of the Internet, applying multiple academic perspectives to the path of both U.S. and foreign cyberlaw. Subsequent chapters review the latest case law and statutory developments from the United States, European Union, China, and other countries governing the Internet. Internet-related issues for jurisdiction, contracts, consumer protection, torts, privacy, cybercrimes, content regulation, and each branch of intellectual property law are summarized. This Nutshell covers the major topics taught in Internet Law, Electronic Commerce Law, and Information Technology Law classes. Rapidly evolving topics such as the Internet of Things, Driverless Cars, Artificial Intelligence, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, and Internet-related Intellectual Property Cases are highlighted.
Cyberspace Law by Call Number: KF390.5.C6 C94 2013ISBN: 9780415630313Publication Date: 2013-04-22This book explores what the American Civil Liberties Union calls the "third era" in cyberspace, in which filters "fundamentally alter the architectural structure of the Internet, with significant implications for free speech." Although courts and nongovernmental organizations increasingly insist upon constitutional and other legal guarantees of a freewheeling Internet, multi-national corporations compete to produce tools and strategies for making it more predictable. When Google attempted to improve our access to information containing in books and the World Wide Web, copyright litigation began to tie up the process of making content searchable, and resulted in the wrongful removal of access to thousands if not millions of works. Just as the courts were insisting that using trademarks online to criticize their owners is First Amendment-protected, corporations and trade associations accelerated their development of ways to make Internet companies liable for their users' infringing words and actions, potentially circumventing free speech rights. And as social networking and content-sharing sites have proliferated, so have the terms of service and content-detecting tools for detecting, flagging, and deleting content that makes one or another corporation or trade association fear for its image or profits. The book provides a legal history of Internet regulation since the mid-1990s, with a particular focus on efforts by patent, trademark, and copyright owners to compel Internet firms to monitor their online offerings and remove or pay for any violations of the rights of others. This book will be of interest tonbsp;students of law, communications, political science, government and policy, business, and economics, as well as anyone interested in free speech and commerce on the internet.
Real Law @ Virtual Space by Call Number: K564.C6 R43 2005ISBN: 1572735511Publication Date: 2004-12-01The first edition of Real Law @ Virtual Space explored the historical and ever-changing aspects of the regulation of communication in cyberspace. Much has changed in the intervening four years as legislators, service providers, consumers and courts grapple with fundamental principles and nuances of regulation, particularly as daily social, political, economic and commercial life moves increasingly into cyberspace. The second edition of this volume addresses the foundation of regulation while reporting on the most current evolving regulatory measures. The technology of communication challenges developments in applicable laws governing rights of privacy, free expression, and liability. Specifically, developments in such areas as obscenity, libel, copyright and intellectual property, linking liability, and cybercrime are considered. In addition, the volume examines existing law and explores the issues that will require legislative and judicial attention in the near future as the law develops and focuses upon communicative rights and liabilities. The volume focuses on developments within the United States, but it also deals with the challenges to jurisdiction in transnational cyberspace.
Governance in "Cyberspace" by Call Number: K564.C6 G74 1999ISBN: 9041112251Publication Date: 1999-11-01Although a little dated, Governance in Cyberspace gives a 'historic' look at the issues as the internet we know today began to take off. Problems of access, regulation, policing policies, jurisdiction, freedom of expression, and property rights are discussed in depth. One can look back on the fledgling groups and organizations that grew to become major stakeholders in today's internet governance. An added bonus of buzzwords like cyber and e-mail make this background material fun and interesting to browse.
From the Publisher:
`Cyberspace' is the emerging invisible, intangible world of electronic information and processes stored at multiple interconnected sites. The digital revolution leads to `convergence' (of telecommunications, computer/Internet and broadcasting) and to dynamic multimedia value chains. Deregulation and competition are major driving forces in the new interactive electronic environment. This volume contains normative proposals for `cyber'-regulation, including self-regulation, grounded on developments in the EU, US and the Far East, in international organisations (WTO, OECD, WIPO, ITU), in business fora, in NGOs, in the `Internet community' and in academic research. The multi-actor (government, business, civil society) and multi-level analysis (subsidiarity) pertains e.g. to ex-ante and ex-post access-regulation, competition, network economics (external effects, essential facilities), public interest principles (human dignity, free speech, privacy, security), development and culture, consumer protection, cryptography, domain names and copyright. Lawyers, regulators, business executives, investment bankers, diplomats, and civil society representatives need shared essentials of plurilateral `governance' to safeguard both competition and public interest objectives, at a scale congruent to `cyberspace', in the transition to an `international law of cooperation'.
Regulatory Groups
- The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was established by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2006. Its UN mandate gives it convening power and the authority to serve as a neutral space for all actors on an equal footing. The IGF facilitates a common understanding of how to maximize internet opportunities and address risks and challenges that arise. Important resources include the past year's workshop proposals and reports and a handbook on global internet best practices.
Global Commission on Internet Governance
- The Global Commission on Internet Governance is a two year working group conducting and supporting independent research on internet-related dimensions of global public policy. Key issues to be addressed by the commission include governance legitimacy and regulation, innovation, online rights and systemic risk. Due to sunset in 2016, the commission has created a number of detailed publications over its time and provides a wealth of information.
Internet Corporation for Assignment of Names and Numbers (ICANN)
- A private organization that manages internet resources, ICANN is primarily known for coordinating the internet's Domain Name System (DNS). The organizations is run by a board of directors composed of 16 voting members and 5 liaison representatives. ICANN is a not-for-profit corporation organized under California law in 1998, and originally operated under a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). Following two years of talks between ICANN and the DOC, ICANN submitted a proposal to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in April, 2016 to end direct U.S. government oversight control and replace it with global multi-stakeholder oversight.
United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
- UNCITRAL promotes the progressive harmonization and unification of international trade law by preparing and promoting the use and adoption of legislative and non-legislative instruments in a number of key areas of commercial law. Those areas include dispute resolution, international contract practices, transport, insolvency, electronic commerce, international payments, secured transactions, procurement and sales of goods. Full texts of the model rules created by the Commission are available, as are legal guides on related subjects. The working group on Electronic Commerce has drafted documents concerning topics such as electronic payment methods and security, electronic signatures, data interchange, and transferable records.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
- WIPO, which administers most of the major multi-lateral intellectual property conventions, provides access to the texts of treaties that it administers, as well as a large collection of national legislation and regional and other non-WIPO treaties. WIPO Lex provides a searchable and browsable collection of national IP legislation, WIPO-administered treaties, and bilateral and regional IP-law treaties.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
- OECD's goal is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Through the use of agreements, recommendations, data collection, and peer reviews, the OECD committees discuss policy regarding this information, the Council makes decisions, and then governments implement recommendations. As economies become more tied to the internet and electronic commerce, the OECD has noted the internet as service of importance. It has also recognized that the issue of future internet governance may address a wide array of economic and social challenges.
Agreements
On Viewing Cyberspace
The internet is a shared network of computers, spread across the globe. It is an international space that may not be subject to any sovereignty. Looking to previous instances of jurisdictional practices concerning similar, albeit physical, common spaces may guide developing regulations for this new cyber space. Three international spaces in particular educate future policies concerning the internet:
- Law of the sea The Law of the Sea Convention defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world's oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.
- Antarctic Treaty The treaty, sets aside Antarctica for peaceful purposes to be used as a scientific preserve. It establishes rules for exchanging information from scientific investigations and promotes cooperation between States. The treaty bans military activity on that continent and permits consultative states to conduct inspections
- Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies This treaty cements the idea that spaces may be available to all members of the international community and cannot be appropriated.
Applicable to the Internet
A number of instruments have been adopted at the EU level to deal with the most crucial matters related to private international law (namely the Brussels and Rome Regulations).
- Rome I is a regulation which governs the choice of law in the European Union. The European Parliament and the European Council adopted Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I Regulation). The adoption of Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II Regulation) has enabled the creation of a uniform set of conflict-of-law rules for non-contractual obligations in civil and commercial matters. It thus seeks to improve legal certainty and the predictability of the outcome of litigation.
Brussels Regulation on Jurisdiction (Brussels I)
- The Brussels Convention is a set of rules regulating which courts have jurisdiction in legal disputes of a civil or commercial nature between individuals from different member states of the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). It has detailed rules assigning jurisdiction for the dispute to be heard and governs the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.
Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgements in Civil and Commercial Matters (Lugano Convention) (HTML version here)
- The Lugano Convention extends Brussels I to states that are not eligible for Brussels I participation. Its effects are materially the same as the 2001 Brussels Regulation and it governs issues of jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments between the European Union member states and the European Free Trade Association countries
Notable Cases
- Any entity doing business on the internet may be subject to divergent jurisdictional rules in multiple sovereignties. In 2002 the High Court of Australia held that an Australian plaintiff could sue Dow Jones and another defendant for libel, based on evidence that several hundred people from Australia accessed the Dow Jones website. The court held that because harm happened in Australia, the plaintiff could sue there.