International Internet Law

This book discusses the international legal issues underlying internet governance and proposes an international solution to the resulting problems. It encompasses a wide spectrum of current debates surrounding the governance of the internet and emphasizes the subjects that urgently need international debate. The book sets out the various issues which require urgent attention from the international community in order to sustain the proper functioning of the network that forms the foundation of the global information society. Among the topics discussed are cybercrime, cyberterrorism, protecting intellectual property, e-government, on-line privacy and e-taxation. It also touches on subjects, such as cultural diversity or the problems resulting from the ever growing digital divide, which affect international internet governance although they are yet to play a major role in international internet law. The book takes a comparative approach looking at how different jurisdictions including the U.S., the EU, China and Singapore have attempted various solutions to these problems. Joanna Kulesza goes on to argue that the problem of international internet governance requires an international internet law. Possible solutions, based on the proposals made by the UN Working Group on Internet Governance and the academic community (among others represented by the Internet Governance Project) are discussed in detail and the author calls for international debate on the topic to be initiated and a framework convention to be elaborated, basing the international accord on the already functioning international solutions and a clear, contractual division of state jurisdictional competences.