The subject of this thesis is a complex research of the international legal framework of international information security (IIS). The research generalizes the international legal conceptual approaches to the comprehension of IIS and its elements in the international law. It is proved that at the current stage of development modern international law lacks a unified approach to understanding of IIS and potential threats to international security in the cyberspace. On the basis of the analysis of the doctrinal approaches to understanding of this notion and of the 5 existing regional conventions, namely: Agreement on Cooperation in Ensuring International Information Security between the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Commonwealth of Independent States’ Agreement on Cooperation in Combating Offences Related to Computer Information, the Convention on Cybercrime of the Council of Europe, the League of Arab States Convention on Combating Information Technology Offences and African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data protection, the author identifies the two main terms that have been formed to define the notion: «international information security» and «international cyber security». The researcher suggests her own definition of the IIS and determines the place of the institute of IIS in the framework of modern international law. Besides, it has been revealed that the formation of IIS system is affected by the two points of view. The adherents of the first approach restrict their understanding of IIS to penalty for crime in the cyberspace. The proponents of the other perspective insist on a broader interpretation of IIS and include the military and political, anti-terrorist and criminal-legal aspects into the sphere of IIS regulation. The author argues that the absence of at least one of the IIS aspects will result in limiting the subject of regulation and will disable the establishment of an effective international legal mechanism for ensuring IIS, capable of responding to threats in the cyberspace. The author has suggested her own categorization of the stages of development of the institute of IIS and defined the principles of its regulation. The thesis provides an in-depth analysis of international legal provision of IIS at a global level, namely in the framework of the United Nations Organization and International Telecommunication Union, as well as at the regional level, in the framework of Council of Europe, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Commonwealth of Independent States, League of Arab States, African Union, European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization of American states and some others. The analysis made testifies that the conventional mechanism for ensuring IIS exists only at a regional level, while globally, the IIS issues are regulated by the norms of the so called «soft law». A special consideration is given to the analysis of Ukraine’s stand on the international arena in regard to IIS at the global and regional levels. The author presents the theoretical and practical recommendations to modernize the Ukrainian legislation in this sphere with regard to the three-element structure of IIS. The author has researched the formation of the international-legal foundation of military-political, anti-terrorist and criminal-legal aspects of IIS. The necessity of separation of information (content) and communicative (technical) elements of each IIS aspect have been reasoned.
