Internet Law Commons^™

Defend Forward & Sovereignty: How America’S Cyberwar Strategy Upholds International Law, Elya Taichman

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

To thwart a seemingly neve rending bombardment of cyberattacks, the U.S. Department of Defense recently implemented a new strategy – defending forward. This approach demands persistently engaging the enemy on a daily basis to disrupt cyber activity. Rather than waiting to be attacked, the United States is bringing the fight to the enemy. However, this strategy poses fascinating and complex questions of international law. In particular, because most defend forward operations fall within the gray zone of warfare, it remains unclear whether these operations violate the sovereignty of American adversaries or even third party nation states in whose cyberspace U.S. …

Indiana Law’S Lubin, Sun Help Advise Kosovo Government On Country’S Cybersecurity Act, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

No abstract provided.

From The Golden Gate To London: Bridging The Gap Between Data Privacy And The Right Of Publicity, Kristin Kuraishi

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Currently, there is no global standard or recognition for the right of publicity. Even within the United States, the recognition, scope, and protections vary by state. As the world becomes increasingly reliant on social media for news, information, communication, and recommendations, micro-influencers and non-celebrities require a way to control their developed and curated name, image, and likeness from unauthorized commercial uses by others. Advertising is occurring more frequently online, and brands recognize the power that micro-influencers have on commerce. Some countries, like the United Kingdom, do not recognize the right of publicity, potentially leaving many individuals without recourse for the …

Prosecuting The Phone Scammer When Extradition Fails And Concurrent Jurisdiction Exists, Michelle Lepkofker

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Advancements in technology allow people to place phone calls half a world away via the internet. This technology has made it easier and cheaper for consumers to communicate, but it has also made it easier for scammers to reach more unsuspecting victims. In 2020, TrueCaller, an app designed to block scam phone calls, successfully blocked, and identified 31.3 billion spam calls in 20 countries. In the same year, Americans alone lost a total of USD $ 29.8 billion to scam calls. This Note argues that phone scams continue to be lucrative, in part, because criminal prosecutions of transnational crimes are …

Protecting Internet Access: A Human Rights Treaty Approach, Harpreet Kaur

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

With the evolution of the internet, the world has also seen a marked increase in government-ordered internet shutdowns and restrictions, sometimes with dubious justifications and sometimes with no justification at all. As people have become increasingly reliant on the internet for their day-to-day activities and to keep up with important news, internet restrictions often disrupt lives and violate people’s civil and human rights. While no international law directly protects internet access, it is implicitly advocated for under the freedom of opinion and expression. The upward trend of internet restrictions, however, suggests that an implied protection of access to a necessary …

Copystrikes And Meme Bans: Social Media And Copyright Protections In The Digital Age, Angelina Sanchez

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Social media is a pervasive and ever-present aspect of many peoples’ lives. Its use permeates nearly every aspect of our existence – there truly is an app for everything. Most notably, social media operates internationally both in scope and usage allowing for the creation of an astounding global society that shares cultures and perspectives in a way unprecedented in human history. Never before have societies been as interconnected as they are now. Unfortunately, such interconnectedness comes with the issue of globalizing enforcement of copyright laws. Infringement runs rampant online and forces creators to struggle against a seemingly faceless foe in …

Digital Privacy Rights And Cloud Act Agreements, Tim Cochrane

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) will soon bring into force a new international law enforcement data sharing ‘CLOUD Act agreement’ (US-UK Agreement), the first of its kind under the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act 2018 (CLOUD Act). These agreements enable law enforcement in one state to directly request data from service providers based in the other state. They respond to long-standing concerns with the main mechanism for obtaining overseas data, mutual legal assistance (MLA). The US and UK claim the US-UK Agreement will significantly speed up data access relative to MLA while “respecting privacy and …

Deep In The Heart Of North America: Texas And The Future Of North American Energy Trade, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez, James W. Coleman

Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center Research

Texas, the heart of North American energy markets, has recently emerged from history’s biggest oil boom, and is becoming the crossroads for an increasingly two-way trade in oil and gas. Texas and Mexico, in particular have much to gain from expanded energy trade. This report shows how energy law changes in the U.S. and Mexico present under-studied dangers to cross-border energy trade and will set an agenda for legal reform to enable mutually beneficial fuel and power trade.

In Defense Of Pure Sovereignty In Cyberspace, Kevin Jon Heller

International Law Studies

States currently endorse three different positions concerning the international wrongfulness of cyber operations that penetrate computer systems located on the territory of another state but do not rise to the level of a use of force or prohibited intervention. The first position is that such low-intensity cyber operations are never wrongful, because sovereignty is a principle of international law, not a primary rule that can be independently violated. The second is that low-intensity cyber operations are always wrongful, because sovereignty is a primary rule of international law that is violated by any non-consensual penetration of a computer system located on …

Schrems's Slippery Slope: Strengthening Governance Mechanisms To Rehabilitate Eu-U.S. Cross-Border Data Transfers After Schrems Ii, Edward W. Mclaughlin

Fordham Law Review

In July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated the Privacy Shield Framework, the central data governance mechanism that once governed cross-border data transfers from the European Union (EU) to the United States. For the second time in five years, Europe’s top court invalidated the primary method of cross-border data transfers. Both times the CJEU found that the United States’s surveillance laws were, and remain, overbroad and fail to provide EU citizens with protections that are essentially equivalent to those guaranteed under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in light of the Charter of Fundamental …

Unilateral Cyber Sanctions: Between Questioned Legality And Normative Value, Iryna Bogdanova, Maria Vasquez Callo-Muller

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The current legal vacuum regarding binding international norms regulating malicious conduct in cyberspace has paved the way for the emergence of a unilateral tool: cyber sanctions. They have already been introduced by the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding their obvious importance, their interrelations with international law- especially international economic law-have remained largely unexplored in academic research. This gap is perplexing given the fact that the existing unilateral cyber sanctions have been formulated in such a way as to be prone to misuse. In particular, they bear a significant potential to disrupt economic relations and undermine …

Chinese Technology Platforms Operating In The United States: Assessing The Threat (Originally Published As A Joint Report Of The National Security, Technology, And Law Working Group At The Hoover Institution At Stanford University And The Tech, Law & Security Program At American University Washington College Of Law), Gary Corn, Jennifer Daskal, Jack Goldsmith, Chris Inglis, Paul Rosenzweig, Samm Sacks, Bruce Schneier, Alex Stamos, Vincent Stewart

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Era Of Accelerating Digital Convergence: Security, Surveillance, Data, Privacy, Big Tech, And Politics, John Taschner

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Electronic Waste: Placing Electronic Waste Back In The Hands Of The Manufacturers, Emma Cross

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Data Protection Commissioner V. Facebook Ireland Limited And Maximillian Schrems: Where Do We Go From Here?, Dillon Swensen

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The German Netzdg As Role Model Or Cautionary Tale? Implications For The Debate On Social Media Liability, Patrick Zurth

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

What can be done against discrimination, bullying, insults, and the spread of dangerous fake news on social media platforms? While platforms in the United States enjoy broad discretion on how to approach that issue, there are both legal and political debates regarding social media regulation. Germany, by contrast, advances the opposite approach: requiring social media providers to block or remove illegal content. The Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (“NetzDG,” “Network Enforcement Act,” the “Act”) of 2017 outlines a specific procedure for implementing such a claim. The Act is the first of its kind in the western democratic states. Other countries have invoked or discussed …

Brain-Computer-Interfacing & Respondeat Superior: Algorithmic Decisions, Manipulation, And Accountability In Armed Conflict, Salahudin Ali

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

This article examines the impact that brain-computer-interfacing platforms will have on the international law of armed conflict’s respondeat superior legal regime. Major Ali argues that the connection between the human brain and this nascent technology’s underlying technology of artificial intelligence and machine learning will serve as a disruptor to the traditional mental prerequisites required to impart culpability and liability on commanders for actions of their troops. Anticipating that BCI will become increasingly ubiquitous, Major Ali’s article offers frameworks for solution to BCI’s disruptive potential to the internal law of armed conflict.

Innovative Thinking: Modernizing Outer Space Governance, Diane M. Janosek

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Space security is essential to global safety and prosperity. International treaties should modernize and reflect the world’s innovation in space and governance needs. One must look back to 1967 for the inaugural “Outer Space Treaty,” the first and only binding multilateral agreement for peaceful space use and exploration. In 50 years, technologies and space capabilities have evolved; an updated global treaty and agreement should be developed and evaluated. Both China and Russia have demonstrated their capability to degrade and/or destroy adversaries’ satellites in space. Space wars are no longer a hypothetical. The future once discussed and anxiously anticipated after Sputnik …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Storming Zuckerberg’S Castle, Anupam Chander

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A company’s server is its castle, Richard Epstein once declared. Because of this, anyone sending an email to that server needs permission to enter. Within its own logic, this seems incontrovertible, but it depends on a few logical steps worth unpacking. It begins with the premise that a man’s home is his castle. (The masculine pronoun in the early formulation seems relevant.) Let us accept that premise for the purpose of argument. Combining this premise with the investiture of legal personhood on a corporation, we might then deduce that a company’s home must be its castle. Finally, combining that …

Data Governance And The Elasticity Of Sovereignty, Roxana Vatanparast

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Traditionally, the world map and territorially bounded spaces have dominated the ways in which we imagine how states govern, make laws, and exercise their authority. Under this conception, reflected in traditional international law principles of territorial sovereignty, each state would have exclusive authority to govern and make laws over everything concerning the land within its borders. Yet developments like the proliferation of data flows, which are based on divisible, mobile, and interconnected components of data, are not territorially bounded. This presents a challenge to the traditional bases for territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction under international law, which some scholars claim is …

Easing The Burdens Of A Patchwork Approach To Data Privacy Regulation In Favor Of A Singular Comprehensive International Solution—The International Data Privacy Agreement, Scott Resnick

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Data privacy has become one of the premier hot-button issues in today’s increasingly digital human experience. Legislatures around the globe have attempted to act swiftly in an effort to safeguard the highly coveted personal information of their citizens and combat misuse at the hands of international businesses operating with an online presence. Since the European Union’s enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, countries around the globe have been grappling with how best to replicate the EU’s leading data privacy regulation while providing the same or greater level of transparency into data collection practices. While a mere …

The Revolution Of The Commercial Space Industry: Why Current Laws Must Be Replaced Before American Business Expands To The Moon And Beyond, Drew M. Fryhoff

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Space, the final frontier. Resting at the rim of the Earth, an endless void full of opportunity awaits those who are willing to take a leap of faith. Historically, only national space programs have been capable of orchestrating expeditions to outer space. However, American aerospace companies now rival governmental entities in their abilities to operate beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. State-of-the-art developments in aerospace technology have positioned the American commercial space sector to become more productive than national space programs in the years to come. Unfortunately, the potential of the American commercial space sector is severely hindered under the Treaty on …

Symposium: The California Consumer Privacy Act, Margot Kaminski, Jacob Snow, Felix Wu, Justin Hughes

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review is pleased to publish the third “symposium discussion” series in which leading experts are invited to engage in an evening symposium on a new or emerging area of law. The subject of our second evening symposium was the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), a statute signed into state law by then- Governor Jerry Brown on June 28, 2018 and effective as of January 1, 2020.

As with most new law, there are many unsettled issues, disagreements about the likely impact of the law, and much to be developed as regulations are established and the …

Enough Is As Good As A Feast, Noah C. Chauvin

Seattle University Law Review

Ipse Dixit, the podcast on legal scholarship, provides a valuable service to the legal community and particularly to the legal academy. The podcast’s hosts skillfully interview guests about their legal and law-related scholarship, helping those guests communicate their ideas clearly and concisely. In this review essay, I argue that Ipse Dixit has made a major contribution to legal scholarship by demonstrating in its interview episodes that law review articles are neither the only nor the best way of communicating scholarly ideas. This contribution should be considered “scholarship,” because one of the primary goals of scholarship is to communicate new ideas.

Poland’S Challenge To Eu Directive 2019/790: Standing Up To The Destruction Of European Freedom Of Expression, Michaela Cloutier

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In 2019, the European Parliament and Council passed Directive 2019/790. The Directive’s passage marked the end of a fouryear- long legislative attempt to impose more liability for copyright violations on Online Service Providers, an effort which was controversial from the start. Online Service Providers fear that the 2019 Directive, especially its Article 17, will completely change the structure of liability on the Internet, forcing providers to adopt expensive content filtering systems. Free speech advocates fear that ineffective filtering technology will infringe upon Internet users’ rights to express themselves, and legal scholars have pointed out the Directive’s inconsistency with prior European …

Covert Deception, Strategic Fraud, And The Rule Of Prohibited Intervention (Originally Published As Part Of The Hoover Institution’S Aegis Series), Gary Corn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Government Information Crackdowns In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Justin Sherman

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated the importance of accurate, real-time information and empirical data in a rapidly evolving crisis. Yet it has also captured an opposite issue: the spread of misinformation and disinformation during a public health crisis. Numerous governments have used the Covid-19 pandemic as reason to, legitimately or illegitimately, heighten existing state censorship practices or introduce new practices entirely under the justification of stopping false information about the virus. This report analyzes developments in China, India, and Russia as case studies of government censorship amid the public health crisis. It offers five key takeaways from these case studies. …

A Keystroke Causes A Tornado: Applying Chaos Theory To International Cyber Warfare Law, Daniel Garrie, Masha Simonova

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Cyber warfare today finds itself on the front page of the news daily. It is increasingly apparent that the cyber domain demands more guidance, with leaders opting for the deployment of cyber capabilities to bypass kinetic warfare norms. Proposed solutions abound, but none adequately address the specific features of cyber warfare that set it apart from traditional kinetic warfare. This Article argues that a new legal framework is necessary to properly address this problem, and such a doctrine should incorporate principles of chaos theory. Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics dealing with complex systems, with the most well-known example …