Jurisdiction in Cyberspace: American Law Versus International Law. Competition or Collaboration?

The Internet and cyberspace have long been a part of our lives. Internet technologies have created an opportunity for the exchange of information and the development of cross-border trade. Many IT companies and even small entrepreneurs have become subjects of international relations, carrying out their activities in various jurisdictions in conditions when they do not need to open a representative office in each country of their presence. In this regard, many questions have arisen regarding the definition of their jurisdiction, which has led to competition between different legal regimes (Illegal and Harmful Content on the Internet: Communication from the European Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions (visited Oct. 23, 1997); Cf. Global Information Networks, Ministerial Conference Bonn 6–8 July 1997, 22 (visited Oct. 23, 1997).). At the same time, because Internet technologies began to spread primarily in the United States, it is the American legal system that has become a kind of “trendsetter” in resolving jurisdiction disputes. However, such a state of affairs could not but cause a lot of controversy and suggestions that the prevalence of a national legal system on the Internet can have a negative impact on the development of information law. The determination of the international status of cyberspace and the regulation of issues of determining jurisdiction require the existence of compromise solutions within the framework of international law, taking into account the accumulated experience of national legal systems. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.