Territorial Aspect of State Jurisdiction and Sovereignty in Cyberspace

The paper raises the question of the possibility of applying the territorial principle of sovereignty and jurisdiction of the State in relation to cyberspace, as well as the possible rethinking and expansion of the concept of “territory of the State” through the inclusion of virtual spatial units that do not have the properties of geographical extent. The inclusion of cyberspace in the concept of “territory of the State” is conditioned by the fact that cyberspace as a sphere of realization of social, economic and political relations cannot be beyond the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the State. If, however, the supremacy of a state is established in relation to a spatial unit, that unit must be referred to the concept of “territory of the State”, the legal meaning of which is to designate the spatial sphere of competence of the State. The question of the possible inclusion of cyberspace in the concept of “territory” is further justified by the lack of static content of this concept, which at certain stages of historical development as a result of political, geographical, technological and other factors began to cover new spatial boundaries (air, space, continental shelf space, etc.). At the same time, with the development of cyberspace, not the concept of “territory of the State” itself evolves, the legal significance of which lies in the spatial limits of the full jurisdiction of the State, but only the content components of the territory through the inclusion of new spatial units that do not have a tangible, planar aspect. The author analyzes the normative approaches of Russia and the United States to the issues of outlining the spatial contour of the jurisdiction of States in cyberspace, as a result of which it is revealed that the initiatives of Russian law are more limited to the dominance of the technological approach, which consists in establishing territorial boundaries with respect to physically located on the territory of the State devices and equipment with which access to information is carried out. In contrast to the American approach, which legislates the establishment of jurisdiction over data on servers in foreign countries, the Russian law does not raise the question of the possibility of including in the spatial limit of jurisdiction of information resources oriented to the territory of Russia, access to which is supported by equipment located outside the territory of Russia.

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