ACADEMIA Letters
Jurisprudence on Cyber Borders Concept
Yassin Abdelkarim
Every state has three traditional borders surrounding its territory and the vital regional adjunct
areas as well. This geopolitical fact indicates that the state can practice national sovereignty
within its boundaries in addition to its rights on the adjunct waters and economic zones. Those
borders are protected by authorities like customs ofcers, coast guards, and borders guards’
divisions. Those authorities are sufcient to secure the state against illegal activities. This
meaning of the state’s borders is obvious and frmly established in international law.
However, the emergence of the internet changed this fact. A modern type of borders
appeared with a specifc nature that is overwhelmed by ambiguity and limitlessness. That
nature features cyberspace and its borders that requires understanding this new concept to
integrate it within the legal system.
The idea of cyber borders is debated among theorists since cyber communications are
virtual links that cannot have connections with the meaning of the state’s-imposed borders in
the real world.
1
Johnson and Post claim that the concept of state sovereignty in the real world should not
extend to cyberspace. Cyberspace should have its concepts of sovereignty and borders that
should not be afected by the traditional understanding of them.
2
They argue that cyberspace
is not a coherent territory limited by a special kind of border. Furthermore, these borders need
to have a special nature suitable to cyberspace to control the data fow using virtual technical
border control mechanisms.
3
Goldsmith sees that as a limited point of view. He claims that the
1
Jackson Adams and Mohamad Albakajai (2016), ‘Cyberspace: A New Threat to the Sovereignty of the State’,
4 Management Studies 256.
2
David R Johnson and David G Post (1996), ‘Law And Borders–The Rise of Law in Cyberspace, 48 Stanford
Law Review 1367, 1368.
3
ibid 1396.
Academia Letters, May 2022
Corresponding Author: Yassin Abdelkarim, yassinabdelkarim91@gmail.com
Citation: Abdelkarim, Y. (2022). Jurisprudence on Cyber Borders Concept. Academia Letters, Article 5268.
1
©2022 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0