Digital Sovereignty Revisited

New elements for a shared and cooperative concept

Rolf H. Weber

Zitiervorschlag: Rolf H. Weber, Digital Sovereignty Revisited, in: Jusletter IT 23. Februar 2023

The 500 years old sovereignty principle must be realigned in times of globalization. Recently, the notion of digital sovereignty was coined meaning that States claim the right to impose protective measures on infrastructures. Such kind of sovereignty causes the risk that a fragmentation of global networks occurs (“Splinternet”) which is undesirable. In order to overcome this tendency, sovereignty in the digital world should be understood as a notion of shared and cooperative spaces and include civil society-based voices. Therefore, the term “digital sovereignty” needs to be developed into the direction of said concept by encompassing all relevant actors in cyberspace.