The Challenges of the Digital Age: The Problems of Criminal Liability for Cybercrimes in Lithuanian Law

Abstract

Abstract The spread of digital technology and the convergence of computer and communication devices have changed the way people communicate, do important jobs, and so on. However, this digital age has also opened up a wide range of possibilities of using computer technology for criminal purposes. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to specify the main problems of legal regulation and case law of criminal liability for cybercrimes in Lithuanian law. So, the analysis was based on three main questions: the difficulties in legal regulation of cybercrimes in Lithuanian criminal law; the problematic relation between cybercrimes and other related crimes as well as the problems of applying some composition features of cybercrimes in Lithuanian case law. The research was carried out by employing the logical, the systematic, the linguistic, the historical, the comparative and the synthesizing research methods as well as the analysis of legal documents. The analysis shows that the legal regulation of criminal liability for cybercrimes in Lithuanian law has considerable problematics compared to international standards, as well as some composition features of cybercrimes are inappropriate for their application in practice and there many problems with ratio between this kind of crimes and similar crimes in Lithuanian case law.