The cyber domain poses great challenges to the existing international law framework, resulting in the international community's frustration in finding sustainable long-term solutions to the international regulation of cyberspace. This thesis reflects upon foundational concepts of the jus ad bellum framework, such as State sovereignty and the use of force. The principal issue discussed in this thesis is the emergence of a customary international norm prohibiting violations of sovereignty, essentially targeting lowintensity cyber attacks. Violations of sovereignty were classified as a primary rule in Rule 4 of the Tallinn Manual 2.0 (2017), which sparked a debate about the rule's true existence as a customary norm. This thesis assesses whether violations of sovereignty can currently be extrapolated as a primary rule of customary international law. It thereafter discusses the need for such a rule, as well as the risks of such a rule emerging as a customary norm.

Thesis advisor: Dale Herbeck / Websites counseling dangerous activity such as suicide represent uncharted legal territory. To date, most legal scholarship regarding these sites considers whether they incite imminent lawless action. As an alternative to incitement, this paper argues that these websites are more productively characterized as instruction manuals that aid and abet unlawful activity. In support of this approach, this paper proposes a three-tiered legal test for distinguishing between protected and unprotected instruction manuals under the First Amendment. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

A pergunta que move este trabalho é se existem indícios, na atual construção argumentativa sobre a regulação internacional da internet, da conformação de um regime internacional da internet. Para respondê-la, o primeiro passo é explorar os significados do fenômeno da fragmentação do direito internacional. A partir da identificação de algumas linhas de pensamento, este trabalho adota o diagnóstico de que a fragmentação do direito internacional se liga a uma transposição da diferenciação funcional social para o campo do direito. Dessa forma, trabalhar com o direito internacional fragmentado exige levar em conta a presença de regimes diversos, constituídos por construções argumentativas movidas por um ethos próprio. Esses regimes produzem linguagem técnica que leva a um gerencialismo e que se volta contra outras linguagens, gerando disputas hegemônicas. Para o jurista, é essencial assumir seu papel dentro das construções argumentativas, tomando consciência da política dos regimes e utilizando instrumentos interdisciplinares que atinjam também o que é rotulado como não-direito. Uma vez definida, esta abordagem é aplicada para o estudo da regulação internacional da internet, como um segundo passo deste trabalho. A análise começa pelas batalhas que foram travadas pela alma da internet desde sua criação e os atores envolvidos nessas batalhas. Depois, aborda as representações sobre a regulação da internet durante os períodos de desenvolvimento dessa tecnologia. Diante de uma previsão sobre o último período, começa a olhar para as construções sobre a internet desde 2011. Na literatura analisada, a internet é definida de acordo com o que compõe sua regulação, sua extensão e seus limites. A literatura aponta vários atores e instituições que participam dessa regulação e o Estado aparece com papéis variados, mas a governança multissetorial tem destaque. Os autores divergem ao falarem sobre a aplicação do direito internacional às questões que consideram mais importantes na internet. Eles discordam sobre os problemas da regulação, sobre se e quais direitos deveriam ser aplicados e como os atores devem agir para essa regulação. Contudo, todos têm o movimento de suas argumentações em comum. Todos constroem exceções quanto ao direito em geral quando pensam na melhor regulação para a internet. O terceiro passo da pesquisa é então analisar o que isso significa, tendo em mente o quadro teórico de que partiu. Ela conclui que há indícios da conformação de um regime internacional da internet, tendo em vista que a defesa da especialização do direito para a internet se move com um propósito comum de diferenciar o mundo online do mundo off-line. Finalmente, ela indica algumas agendas de pesquisa que podem ser adotadas a partir desses resultados / The question that drives this work is whether there is evidence, within the current argumentative construction on international Internet regulation, of an international internet regime. To answer that, the first step is to explore the meanings of the phenomenon of fragmentation in international law. After the identification of some schools of thought on the subject, this paper adopts the diagnosis that the fragmentation of international law is due to a transposition of social functional differentiation to the legal field. Given that, dealing with a fragmented international law requires taking into account the presence of various schemes, consisting of argumentative constructions driven by their own ethos. These schemes produce a technical language that leads to managerialism and that pits itself against other languages, generating hegemonic disputes. Lawyers should assume their role within these argumentative constructions, becoming aware of regimes politics and using interdisciplinary tools to reach also what is labeled as non-legal. This theoretical approach is applied to the international internet regulation, as the second step of this research. The analysis begins with the battles that were fought for the soul of the Internet since its inception and the actors involved in these battles. The paper then addresses the representations on the regulation of the Internet during periods of development of this technology. Faced with a prediction about the last period, it looks at the constructions on Internet since 2011. In the examined literature, the Internet is defined according to what constitutes its regulation, its extent and its limits. The literature points to several actors and institutions that participate in this regulation and the State appears with varying roles, but multi-sectorial governance has central emphasis. The authors diverge when discussing the application of international law to issues that they consider most important on the Internet. They disagree on the issues of regulation, on whether and which duties should be imposed and how actors should act towards this regulation. However, all of them have the movement of their arguments in common. All develop exceptions to international law when they elaborate about a better regulation for the Internet. The third step of the research is then to analyze what this means, bearing in mind the theoretical framework adopted. It concludes that there is evidence of the construction of an international regime of the internet, as long as the defense of internets specialty moves along with a common purpose to differentiate the online world from the offline world. Finally, the paper points to some research agendas that can be derived from its results.

In this dissertation, I argue that the Rule of Law is made vulnerable by technological innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) that take power previously delegated to legal decision-makers and put it in the hands of machines. I assert that we need to interrogate the potential impacts of AI and ML in law: without careful scrutiny, AI and ML's wide-ranging impacts might erode certain fundamental ideals. Our constitutional democratic framework is dependent upon the Rule of Law: upon a contiguous narrative thread linking past legal decisions to our future lives. Yet, incursions by AI and ML into legal process - including algorithms and automation; profiling and prediction - threaten longstanding legal precepts in state law and constraints against abuses of power by private actors. The spectre of AI over the Rule of Law is most apparent in proposals for "self-driving laws," or the idea that we might someday soon regulate society entirely by machine. Some academics have posited an approaching "legal singularity," in which the entire corpus of legal knowledge would be viewed as a complete data set, thereby rendering uncertainty obsolete. Such "regulation by machine" advocates would then employ ML approaches on this legal data set to refine and improve the law. In my view, such proposals miss an important point by assuming machines can necessarily outperform humans, without first questioning what such performance entails and whether machines can be meaningfully said to participate in the normative and narrative activities of interpreting and applying the law. Combining insights from three distinct areas of inquiry - legal theory, law as narrative scholarship, and technology law - I develop a taxonomy for analysing Rule of Law problems. This taxonomy is then applied to three different technological approaches powered by AI/ML systems: sentencing software, facial recognition technology, and natural language processing. Ultimately, I seek the first steps towards developing a robust normative framework to prevent a dangerous disruption to the Rule of Law.

Electronic contracts in the new technological age and electronic commerce have brought about world-wide legal uncertainty. When compared to the traditional paper-based method of writing and signing, the question has arisen whether contracts concluded by electronic means should be recognised as valid and enforceable agreements in terms of the functional equivalence approach. This study will examine the law regulating e-commerce from a South African perspective in contrast to international trends and e-commerce law from the perspective of the United States. The research investigates various aspects of contract formation such as time and place, validity of electronic agreements, electronic signatures, attribution of electronic data messages and signatures, automated transaction as well as select aspects of e-jurisdiction from a South African and United States viewpoint. / Mercantile Law / LLM

Electronic contracts in the new technological age and electronic commerce have brought about world-wide legal uncertainty. When compared to the traditional paper-based method of writing and signing, the question has arisen whether contracts concluded by electronic means should be recognised as valid and enforceable agreements in terms of the functional equivalence approach. This study will examine the law regulating e-commerce from a South African perspective in contrast to international trends and e-commerce law from the perspective of the United States. The research investigates various aspects of contract formation such as time and place, validity of electronic agreements, electronic signatures, attribution of electronic data messages and signatures, automated transaction as well as select aspects of e-jurisdiction from a South African and United States viewpoint. / Mercantile Law / LLM

Electronic contracts in the new technological age and electronic commerce have brought about world-wide legal uncertainty. When compared to the traditional paper-based method of writing and signing, the question has arisen whether contracts concluded by electronic means should be recognised as valid and enforceable agreements in terms of the functional equivalence approach. This study will examine the law regulating e-commerce from a South African perspective in contrast to international trends and e-commerce law from the perspective of the United States. The research investigates various aspects of contract formation such as time and place, validity of electronic agreements, electronic signatures, attribution of electronic data messages and signatures, automated transaction as well as select aspects of e-jurisdiction from a South African and United States viewpoint. / Mercantile Law / LLM