The thesis is a comprehensive scientific research of the transformative impact of global information society on the progressive development of international law. The author examines the enhancement of adaptivity level of international law with regard to permanently evolving legal relationships in information sphere. The research reflects existent doctrinal approaches, normative regulation, institutional structure, and law enforcement practices. Special attention through the whole research is paid to the interrelation of law and technology, and the need to adjust classical legal concepts of «sovereignty» and «territorial jurisdiction» to the specifics of technologically oriented society. In this regard the thesis presents the historical overview of the growing convergence between normative, technological and economic dimensions of global information society. The emphasis is made on the practical viability of enlarging the normative framework for the regulation of the issues under the umbrella of global information society concept. The rigidity and conservativism of international law are seen as the biggest deficiency of this normative system and its inability to react efficiently and timely to the developments in technologically driven society. States are no longer recognized as the primary and the only policy-setters when it comes to shaping the normative and development agenda of the global information society. At the same time, the lack or shortage of inter-state regulation is compensated by standardization and interpretation practices by international courts, and wider recognition of softer means of regulation. The thesis refers to the most outstanding national courts’ practices, as well as the case law of the ECJ and the ECtHR as the examples of dynamic application of valid international law principles and rules. Author defines key basic notions of the research paper – «global information society», «cyberspace», «human rights online», and «net neutrality principle» in terms of international law. Thesis also contains the classification of the institutional mechanisms of global information society, description of their efficiency, normative potential, level of interaction among themselves, and recommendations as to the improvement of global institutional structure governing the global information society itself and the relationships arising within it. Traditionally two major models of global Internet governance and in a broader sense of global information society are identified by the author – multilateral and multistakeholder models. The focus is made on the transition from state-centric to human-centric system of international legal regulation of global information society based on the principles of shared sovereignty and multistakeholder participation of all interested parties (states, international organizations, private sector, and civil society). The research contains the specification of the issues falling under the umbrella of the global information society, and provides the classification of respective international legal acts currently in force. Specific examples (human rights online, personal data protection, cybersecurity) are used to demonstrate the critical importance of having universal international legal regimes for the objects and relationships arising with regard to and within the global information society. Human rights online and offline are getting the growing recognition of equal application and protection, though the specifics of online environment should be taken into account when providing efficient legal remedies. Given the transboundary and global nature of information society the universal regime is required for the transfer of personal data under sufficient guarantees and protection. The EU and USA cooperation under the Umbrella Agreement and the Privacy Shield is used to highlight the difficulties and the importance of having universal legal regimes for cyberspace. Cybersecurity is described with a view to the tendencies to regionalization of discussions, which pose a threat to stability of Internet ecosystem and may lead to fragmentation of regulation and reallocation of spheres of influence. On the contrary, it is offered to universalize cybersecurity discussions and to concentrate on the positive rhetoric of maintaining cyber peace and stability. The Internet as the underlying infrastructure of global information society bares the value in itself, and, thus, should be recognized as the common heritage of mankind by analogy with open space and the high seas.
