MIT white logo

CYBER LAW

It is increasingly apparent that the “demand” for order and organization in the cyber domain is growing at rates greater than any effective “supply”. It calls attention to current conditions and prevailing challenges and dilemmas and the resulting calls for order.  

The Fourth Global Imperative, CYBER LAW focuses on an evolving mode of discourse and reasoning for cyber order in international relations. The goal is to develop empirically-based views of key approaches to international law as part of the emergent order in the cyber domain—in terms of theory, policy, and practice. We illustrate with several examples that address fundamental concerns of states and global firms—as well as individuals and aggregates.

Despite major innovations in the construction and management of the Internet—or perhaps because of the obvious success of distributed governance—the international community is now on the verge of a new challenge: how to frame the relationship between international law and cyberspace.

One analyst observes that there is a “simple choice” between a “[m]ore global law and a less global internet” (Kohl, 2007, p.28–30). Another reminds us that the most “important point” is that “all ground occupied by international law is shared by others who are not lawyers….” (Lowe, 2007, p.290).

Here, we highlight three research projects. Each is distinctive, with different implications for cyberpolitics and cyberpolicy. Each is an application of analytics developed for the Science of Security and Privacy Program (SoS) reviewed above for POLICY ANALYTICS.

Complexity of International Law for Cyber Operations

Detailed review of the complexity of international law for cyber operations, focusing on Tallinn Manual 2.0.  As such, it is part of the proof of concept application of analytics developed for our project of Science of Security and Privacy Program introduced in the critical imperative of POLICY ANALYTICS.

European Union, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

A computational analysis of the structure of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union. A path breaking initiative in international relations GDPR focuses on data protection and privacy for all individual citizens of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).

Council of Europe, Convention on Cybercrime

Analysis of the structure and organization of the Convention on Cybercrime is the first international treaty on crimes that are committed via the Internet and includes violations of network security. It contains a set of active procedures enabling the search of computer systems and networks. This project is part of the proof of concept application of analytics developed for our project of Science of Security and Privacy Program introduced in the critical imperative of POLICY ANALYTICS.

References: