The Need for Cybercrime Regulation on a Global Scale by International Law and Cyber Conventions

This paper examines the urgent need for harmonised global regulation of cybercrime through international law and specialised cyber conventions. It argues that the inherently transnational nature of cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled offences, combined with the volatility and extraterritoriality of electronic evidence, renders purely domestic responses inadequate. The analysis traces the evolution of the international legal framework from the Budapest Convention and its Second Additional Protocol on electronic evidence to the newly adopted United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, situating these instruments within broader debates on sovereignty, jurisdiction, and digital sovereignty. It further evaluates regional initiatives and domestic legislative trends, highlighting persistent fragmentation, capacity gaps, and divergent normative approaches, particularly regarding content-related offences and state surveillance. A central claim is that effective global cybercrime regulation must be explicitly grounded in international human rights law, embedding robust safeguards for privacy, freedom of expression, due process, and data protection in both substantive and procedural rules. The paper concludes by proposing a model of complementary, human-rights–centred, and multi-stakeholder governance that aligns existing instruments, strengthens mutual legal assistance, and prioritises capacity-building, especially for developing States.