National Sovereignty: Socio-Political Transformation in Context of Modern Cyber Realities

In: Journal of politics and law: JPL, Band 12, Heft 3, S. 11

Open Access

Abstract

The key idea of the study is the question of the relationship between such categories as “national sovereignty” and “cyberspace”. The authors consider that the current theory of law and positive legal regulation at the present stage do not offer reasonable options for interaction and coexistence of these concepts.

In the conditions of the dramatic changes in the existing realities over the past 30 years, the question arises of the differentiation of legal regulation, which is still more intended to the social relations that existed in the 20th century. Today technical progress is significantly ahead of social, in particular, legal regulation, which, in turn, is seriously tied to the state or, as any law student confirms, “territorial organization of power in a society with sovereignty...”. And here the main question arises about the reasonableness of the above formulation. Is it suitable for existing realities? Or is it itself an obstacle to legalization? The article analyzes various approaches to the legal settlement of relations in cyberspace, as well as offers two options for supranational regulation of these legal relations - through the development and establishment of an extraterritorial international body that will have not only the ability to control public relations within cyberspace, but also special instruments of coercion to influence the citizens of any state, either through the creation of a global system of international acts that will regulate most of the existing questions about the interaction of persons in cyberspace and included a clear mechanism to respond quickly to the emergence of new relations in this sphere.

The authors also consider that the inability at theoretical level to conceptualize the relationship between these categories could lead to the discrediting of such notions as “national state” and “national sovereignty” in the future.