Towards a Global Digital Constitutionalism: A Radical New Agenda for UN75

Abstract

Twenty years after the WSIS, even as multi-stakeholder governance models in the domain have been stripped of any claim to their democratic potential, global digital governance is in shambles. Norm-building for the digital paradigm is increasingly shifting to plurilateral spaces and private sector-led rule-making in the guise of technical standards development. The UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation (2020) has failed to address this crisis. The paper argues for how in its 75th year, the UN needs to make a clean break from its historical soft-pedalling of corporatized rule-making for the digital by embracing the radical agenda of a transformative global constitutionalism, and proceeds to outline its constituent elements.