Digital sovereignty: conceptual challenges and constitutional implications

• Published in: Конституційно-правові академічні студії
• Main Author: Yevhen Novikov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: State University “Uzhhorod National University” 2024-09-01
• Subjects: digital sovereignty; technological sovereignty; technology; security; безпека
• Online Access: http://journal-kpas.uzhnu.edu.ua/article/view/311047

This article examines how national states and integrative unions such as the European Union employ the concept of digital sovereignty in their policy discourse. It begins with the premise that contemporary digital policy of these entities is intricately linked to the idea of digital sovereignty. The study analyzes the factors that have led national states and the European Union to enter a new phase of modern constitutionalism - digital constitutionalism. Modern European constitutionalism has accumulated experience in various social spheres, as evidenced by developments such as economic constitutionalism. In the digital era, it raises and attempts to answer questions about how digital constitutionalism can overcome the limitations of traditional constitutional thinking, particularly its focus on state-legal and political phenomena. The article explores the extent to which the generalization of purely state constitutional principles can advance in the digital age. The paper emphasizes that digital constitutionalism is a convenient concept for explaining the phenomenon of constitutional resistance to challenges created by digital technologies. It notes that existing foreign, and especially Ukrainian, legal scholarship has not yet formed a clear and unified vision of this concept. This article provides a literature review on digital constitutionalism and offers an analysis of the theoretical frameworks surrounding the concept. It posits that digital constitutionalism is an ideology that adapts the values of modern constitutionalism to the demands of the digital age. Currently, digital constitutionalism does not provide normative answers to the challenges of digital technologies, but rather presents a set of principles and values that inform and guide them. The article argues that Internet governance is evolving towards fragmentation, polarization, and hybridization, which contribute to the development of an architecture of freedom and power in the digital environment. The study aims to identify constitutionally significant threats associated with digitalization and allows for the development of constitutional counterstrategies.