International Law Basis for Self-Regulation in Cyberspace

Abstract

The paper features the concept of self-regulation in cyberspace and justifies its advantages over thestate regulation model. The paper also examines international law documents mentioning the necessityto keep the open and universal nature of the Internet and encourages various forms of cooperation between state and the parties interested in developing standards, norms, rules and strategies in thisfield. Own definition of self-regulation in cyberspace has been formulated, with the advantages of suchlawmaking. Besides, the paper contains references to recent reports of international organizationsand works of scholars confirming the efficiency and a growing role of self-regulation in cyberspace.The author stresses that the concept of self-regulation is not brand-new though not having deservedappropriate academic attention in the international law theory. The paper touches upon traditional forinternational law concepts of sovereignty and territorial jurisdiction. These are the conceptions which inthe opinion of the author decrease significantly the flexibility of states in terms of the changing environmentof the technology oriented world. Fragmented regulation of cyberspace may cause the divisionof the global net into separate nets administered by different national laws of a local net, which differssignificantly from the existing model of the Internet. It is crucial to stress the consistency of regulatoryprescriptions with the interests of immediate users. The emergence of the new phenomenon in internationallaw should be accompanied with the development of the brand new bulk of legal norms and standards.Uniform prescriptions for all the spheres of interaction of international law subjects cannot exist.Moreover, it is impossible to impose administration models of the past centuries on the on-line spacepossessing absolutely different features. Hence, self-regulation is presented in the paper as a form oflawmaking in information sphere capable of responding changes in legal relations in cyberspace.