The Net and the Nation State: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Internet Governance

This collection investigates the sharpening conflict between the nation state and the internet through a multidisciplinary lens. It challenges the idea of an inherently global internet by examining its increasing territorial fragmentation and, conversely, the notion that for states online law and order is business as usual. Cyberborders based on national law are not just erected around China's online community. Cultural, political and economic forces, as reflected in national or regional norms, have also incentivised virtual borders in the West. The nation state is asserting itself. Yet, there are also signs of the receding role of the state in favour of corporations wielding influence through de-facto control over content and technology. This volume contributes to the online governance debate by joining ideas from law, politics and human geography to explore internet jurisdiction and its overlap with topics such as freedom of expression, free trade, democracy, identity and cartographic maps.
Proposes a wider legal and non-legal framework within which the internet jurisdiction debate could and should be placed, enabling readers with interests in internet governance to see the various points of contact between different debates
The focus on online content and infrastructure will be useful to readers who have an interest in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and other internet infrastructure issues
Social science discussions from politics, human geography and media studies are presented in an interesting and accessible style, allowing legal academics and lawyers more generally to tap into 'parallel' debates occurring in other disciplines