The cross-border Internet and its online spaces span a fragmented patchwork of national jurisdictions. As connectivity and Internet penetration increase, so do the conflicts between jurisdictions. Such conflicts challenge the Westphalian international system, and traditional modes of legal cooperation struggle to resolve these jurisdictional tensions. Extreme application of the principle of territoriality and the exertion of digital sovereignty put the global community on a dangerous path if employed on the global scale. If nothing is done, this legal arms race could lead to severe unintended consequences for the future of the global digital economy, human rights, the technical Internet infrastructure and security.
Twenty-first century digital realities challenge traditional modes of international legal cooperation, revealing an institutional gap in Internet governance that may be solved by drawing lessons from the technical governance of the Internet. Preserving the global character of the Internet, fighting illicit online behaviour, and establishing procedural interoperability and due process across borders demand innovative cooperation mechanisms that are as transnational as the Internet itself.
In order to properly address jurisdictional tensions such as cross-border access to user data, content takedowns, or domain seizures, this paper recommends the creation of issue-based multistakeholder policy networks to develop scalable solutions.
