Антон Калинин - Legal regulation of the Internet

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At the moment, it cannot be said that Internet law in Russia has been widely developed in scientific or practical terms. This is a fairly new, specific area. In scientific terms, based on the traditions of ideas about the system of Russian law and the allocation of branches according to the criterion of "subject-method", it is not necessary to talk about Internet law as an independent branch of Russian law, however. Legal regulation of relations on the Internet is interdisciplinary in nature and requires extensive use of both private law and public law methods and means of legal regulation. Separately, we should focus on the relationship of the concept of “Internet law” with the concept of “information law". The meaning of information cannot be overestimated the phrase: -“Who owns the information, he owns the world”– uttered two hundred years ago, has become winged for a reason. The roots of information law go back to public branches, primarily administrative and criminal law. However, with the development of the subject of legal regulation and the widespread use of private law methods of regulating information, information law has been constantly transformed into a complex branch of law. It should also be noted that a qualitatively new stage in the development of information law as an independent branch of law was the introduction by Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of 10.01.2012 No. 5 into the nomenclature of special scientists of a separate specialty 12.00.2013 “Information law” (previously “information law” was part of the specialty 12.00.2014).

The Russian legal doctrine presents various points of view on the subject of information law. The most common position is that the subject of information law includes information legal relations, i.e. public legal relations that develop about information in the information environment and arise during the creation, search, collection, transmission, processing, storage, distribution and consumption of information. In our opinion, such an understanding of the subject of information law is absolutely legitimate and justified. At the same time, there are other opinions on this matter. For example, A. A. Tedeev notes that “the subject of legal regulation of information law should be public relations formed in the process of electronic activities (humanitarian and economic) and carried out in the information environment.” By implying the term "information law", we mean Internet law, while it is unclear what information legal relations outside of electronic activity should be attributed to (for example, issues of confidentiality of information, personal data, etc.). D. A. Lovtsov notes that "historically, there has been a system of the information law branch that currently unites a number of such subsectors, – as the law of information security; – media law, – or the law of mass media; competent law Internet law, or the law of telematics networks regulating certain types of information relations in the infosphere. And being, in turn, a special kind of social relations.”

Of course, the Internet is a software information system, but one should not put an equal sign between public relations related to the organization and functioning of the Internet and information relations that are the subject of information law. Undoubtedly, the relations associated with the creation, receipt, and dissemination of information constitute a fairly large circle of public relations on the Internet, but the latter are not limited to them. In the field of the Internet, technical relations are of great importance, related, for example, to the provision of technical access to the network, website hosting, the use of electronic signatures, technical means and remote access servers (for example, Internet banking, a portal of state and municipal services, a taxpayer's personal account, etc.) In addition, legal regulation of the Internet is often associated with with issues of competition, copyright, international, competent and entrepreneurial, consumer and other branches of law. Therefore, in our opinion, in the theoretical and conceptual theory, it does not seem quite correct to consider Internet law as a sub-branch of information law, since the range of public relations regulated by law on the Internet is wider.

The point of view of I. M. Rassolov, who considers Internet law as an intersectoral institute of law, deserves special attention. In this sense, the author defines Internet law as “objectively isolated within various branches of law (and, above all, information, international, private and public law) a set of interrelated legal norms united by the commonality of regulating relations in the virtual space of the Internet.” He also notes that Internet law, being a complex institution, cannot be entirely part of one or another primary (professional) branch of law, it is included in specific branches only by its part. It is difficult to disagree with the latter. However, the understanding of Internet law as an institution of law (albeit intersectoral), in our opinion, is quite controversial (from the standpoint of the theory of law regarding the understanding of Internet law as a separate group of legal norms regulating initially homogeneous social relations), because the subject of Internet law includes relations that are completely diverse in their legal essence and do not have a sign of qualitative uniformity. Thus, Internet law, of course, is not a branch of law in the classical sense, based on the traditional ideas of domestic legal science about the legal system. At the same time, with a certain degree of conditionality, it would be possible to consider Internet law as a newly emerging and emerging complex branch of law, primarily from the standpoint of the great importance of the subject and sphere of legal regulation of the Internet and the specifics of the social relations emerging in connection with its foundation. Although the Internet plays a huge role in the life of society, it is still essentially a means of telecommunications (technology), and not a socially significant sector of public life or the economy (such as medicine, energy, banking, transport, etc.). It seems unacceptable that the branch of law, albeit complex, to a separate technology (otherwise, according to this logic, it will be possible to talk about “telecommunications law”, “autonomous law”, “the right of wind-electronic generation” as complex branches of law). In addition, it is quite possible that in the near future some other virtual global network alternative to the Internet will appear. Among the characteristic features that distinguish Internet law from other areas of legal science and practice are the following: 1) the cross-border nature of relations on the Internet, as a consequence, a combination of international and national legal regulation; 2) the complex, complex, intersectoral nature of public relations on the Internet, in connection with which both private and public-practicing means and methods of regulation are widely used; 3) the restrictive importance of technical, technological, political, economic aspects, a good understanding of which is required from specialists practicing in the field of Internet law and engaged in research in this area.

In Russia, the importance and significance of Internet law is becoming more and more realized by representatives of the legal community every year. Recently, there have been more and more studies in Russia devoted to the consideration of individual problems related to the functioning of the Internet. For example, much attention is paid to the protection of intellectual property rights on the Internet (including the problems of “piracy”), computer crimes and offenses (most of which are committed using the Internet), issues of legal regulation of electronic communication. The Internet also presents works devoted to the study of the legal concept of the Internet, the legal status of individual subjects of the Internet sphere (registrars, providers, bloggers) and objects of legal regulation.

At the same time, it should be noted that in many ways the development and improvement of the regulatory framework in the relevant areas contributed to the increase of scientific interest in these issues. At the same time, many more issues need serious scientific development and reflection in legislation (for example, the legal status of Internet providers and subscribers, issues of their responsibility, legal regulation of domain names, relations in social networks, cross-border regulation, etc.).

The term “Internet law" is also commonly understood as a set of legal norms regulating relations in the field of the Internet. At the same time, one should agree with A. A. Lukyanov, who answers that Internet law can be called “a set of international and national norms regulating public relations on the Internet, regardless of belonging to any industry.”

As has already been shown by the example of Germany, legislation in the field of the Internet is characterized by an integral component, which is a set of regulatory legal prescriptions relating to various branches of law. Speaking on December 16, 2015 at the 2nd World Conference on the Internet, the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation D. A. Medvedev drew attention to the special role of international regulation of relations on the Internet: “… no country today can claim to be a university regulator of the Global Network. There are no historical merits and the current state of affairs. Therefore, we support the policy of strengthening the role of the world community in Internet governance and the development of a global policy in this area. We believe that this should be done under the auspices of leading international institutions, including the United Nations, including relying on the relevant industry organization – the International Telecommunication Union.”

Thus, from the above we can see what the legal basis of legal regulation of the Internet looks like.

The word "Internet law" abroad will not surprise anyone. Internet law, as a rule, refers to a set of legal problems related to the use of the Internet. In Germany, for example, Internet law is not considered as a branch of law, unlike media law (Medienrecht), information law (IT-Recht), telecommunications law (Telekommunikation Srecht), with which Internet law has a large number of common legal problems (such as legal issues posted in The Internet of media content and technological aspects of the organization and functioning of the Network).

At the same time, Internet law is a relatively independent area of scientific and practical activity. More than a dozen textbooks and monographs have been published on Internet law, and an independent course called "Internet law" is taught in a number of German universities. In addition, a number of universities have established research units dealing with Internet law (for example, the Department of Public Law, Security Law and Internet Law at the University of Passau, the Legal Clinic of Internet Law at the Humbol University of Berlin, etc.), while it should be noted that in Germany, and in general in Western Europe unlike Russia, there is no such strict system of division of law into branches. Thus, the Internetrecht course in Germany is taught at the Faculty of Law of the University of Westphalia. Wilhelm G. Monster, the University of Stuttgart, the University of Tübingen, the University of Leipzig, the University of Dusseldorf and other universities.

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