From: Council on Foreign Relations
Bertrand de La Chapelle and Paul Fehlinger are the co-founders of the global multistakeholder policy network Internet & Jurisdiction.
On the Internet, 17th century principles of Westphalian territoriality clash with 21st century digital realities. As Internet penetration moves beyond three billion users in over 190 countries, a new legal arms race develops in cyberspace that can threaten the future of the global digital economy, human rights, the Internet infrastructure and cybersecurity
Most everyday online interactions involve multiple jurisdictions at once, based on the locations of users, servers, Internet companies, or registrars and registries through which domain names were acquired. Contemporary Westphalian tools of cooperation were not designed for a situation where transnational is the new normal, as interactions across borders were historically rare. New challenges regarding the application of jurisdiction to user data, content and domain names need to be addressed with urgency.
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