Formation of an International Legal System for Countering Cybercrime: from Terminology to the Draft Universal Convention

Abstract

The subject of the study is the process of formation of modern global international legal mechanisms for combating crime in the field of information and communication technologies. The purpose of the study is to systematize information about the main stages of the formation of these international legal mechanisms, to assess the current state of the international legal system for countering cybercrime and the prospects for its further development. The main research methods used are a systematic and formal legal approach, linguistic and comparative legal method. As a result of the study, the main problems that the international community has faced and continues to face on the way to forming a global system to combat cybercrime have been identified. In particular, the problem of terminology was examined, as a result of which it was concluded that there is still no universal definition for cybercrime in the international legal field at the moment, which significantly complicates the process of clear legal qualification of such criminal acts. Also, in chronological order, some stages of the formation of the modern international legal system for countering cybercrime were considered. Thus, a description was presented: the Council of Europe Convention on Computer Crimes, the Tallinn Guidelines on the Application of International Legal Norms in the Case of Cyber Warfare developed by NATO, and the Draft UN Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes developed by Russia. The main conclusion of the study is the conclusion that today the global international system for combating cybercrime is still in the early stages of formation. It is noted that one of the factors hindering the further development of this system is the position of many States that consider the Budapest Convention as an effective international legal instrument that does not require conceptual improvements. There is also a lack of global coherence of states in the process of creating international legal acts in the field of cybercrime regulation.