You are invited to attend:
Faculty of Law Twilight Seminar - Jurisdiction and sovereignty - moving away from territoriality
Professor Dan Svantesson
Date: Monday, 4 August 2025
Time: 5.00pm-6.30pm (AEST)
Venue: BLD04_3_41 (Faculty of Law)
The Internet has the potential to greatly advance fellowship among nations, thereby facilitating one of the criteria Alfred Nobel articulated for the Peace Prize some 130 years ago. However, so far this potential is unfulfilled. In fact, the Internet-driven world of today is further from Nobel’s goal of fellowship among nations than was the pre-Internet era. This is partly because the law has failed to create an environment in which the Internet can reach its potential as a facilitator of fellowship among nations. In this context, the concepts of jurisdiction and sovereignty stand out as two key legal tools that require reform.
The seminar expands on a jurisprudential framework for jurisdiction, originally presented ten years ago, and introduces a new jurisprudential framework for sovereignty, anchoring sovereignty in the concept of ‘State dignity’. The common feature of these frameworks is that they both represent a move away from territoriality as the core focal point. This is done with the aim of improving how the concepts of jurisdiction and sovereignty work in the online environment, so as to minimise conflicts and friction, and ultimately serve the goal of Cyber peace.
The seminar will commence at 5.30pm with light refreshments being offered from 5pm (vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free options available).
Please register your attendance by 5pm on Friday 25 July.
Professor Dan Svantesson
Dan Svantesson is a Professor at the Faculty of Law at Bond University and Co-director for the Centre for Space, Cyberspace & Data Law. He specialises in international aspects of the IT society, a field within which he has published a range of books and articles, presenting in Australia, Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. Professor Svantesson is a 2025 Fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, a Senior Fellow with the Social Cyber Institute, and an Associated Researcher at the Swedish Law & Informatics Research Institute, Stockholm University. Professor Svantesson held an ARC Future Fellowship (2012-2016) and was the inaugural Managing Editor for International Data Privacy Law, published by Oxford University Press. He is a Member of the Editorial Boards for several journals, including the Commonwealth Cybercrime Journal, the International Cybersecurity Law Review, the International Journal of Law and Information Technology, the Commonwealth Law Bulletin, the International Review of Law Computers and Technology, the Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology and the Computer Law and Security Review. Professor Svantesson has contributed to commissioned reports by international organisations including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, OECD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network.