• E4J University Module Series: Cybercrime

• Module 7: International Cooperation against Cybercrime

• Introduction and learning outcomes

• Key issues

  • Sovereignty and jurisdiction
  • Formal international cooperation mechanisms
  • Informal international cooperation mechanisms
  • Data retention, preservation and access
  • Challenges relating to extraterritorial evidence
  • National capacity and international cooperation
  • Conclusion
  • References

• Exercises

• Possible class structure

• Core reading

• Advanced reading

• Student assessment

• Additional teaching tools

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• First published in June 2019 
  

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  This module is a resource for lecturers  

 

Conclusion

 

Dual criminality and the harmonization of national, bilateral, regional, and multilateral cybercrime laws are essential to international cooperation. Even with dual criminality and harmonized laws, international cooperation in cybercrime investigations can be challenging. What complicates matters is the lack of timely collection, preservation, and sharing of digital evidence between countries through formal cooperative mechanisms (e.g., MLATs). Countries around the world also suffer from a deficit in national capacity to investigate cybercrime in terms of human, financial, and technical resources (UNODC, 2013). In addition to the absence or inadequacy of necessary funds, qualified personnel, and technical equipment and tools to conduct cybercrime investigations, universal digital forensics and evidence standards and protocols, which ensure the admissibility of digital evidence in the national courts of cooperating countries, are also lacking. Only a multifaceted approach targeting the above-mentioned areas could improve international cooperation on cybercrime matters.

 

Next: References

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