Abstract

The paper explores possible evolutions of the interpretation of the notion of jurisdiction for the purpose of determining the reach of States' obligation to protect the right to privacy, with a view to accommodating such criterion to the specificities of cyberspace. The analysis preliminarily addresses the established international case-law concerning the notion of jurisdiction in the context of human rights protection in order to identify the core meaning of such criterion. Attention is then turned to the interplay between such criterion and the rules of international law coordinating the exercise of States' jurisdiction in the cyberspace. As a practical outcome, the proposed analysis aims at identifying which States are obliged to secure the right to privacy in the cyberspace, with specific regard to the position of the State where the concerned individual resides and the States where the cyber infrastructures through which the violation is committed are located.