Cyberspace: A New Threat to the Sovereignty of the State

Abstract

This paper discusses one of the contemporary challenging issues—it is the challenge of e-commerce to the sovereignty of the state, where governments are unable to implement their own laws on disputed cases resulting from trans-border e-commerce interactions. The objective of the current research is to draw attention to the impact of international characteristics of e-commerce on the sovereignty of state, and to identify the factors affecting this sovereignty. The issue of the dynamicity of time and place will be taken into consideration, where activities carried out over the internet are characterized by their cross-border dimension. Based on real e-commerce case studies disputed on international level, this paper will draw on the legal perspective of cyberspace, identifying the relationship between cyberspace and state sovereignty, and outlining the mechanisms by which cyberspace could cross borders and the territory of the state despite all the precautions taken by the state to protect its sovereignty.