NUSIKALSTAMOS VEIKOS ELEKTRONINĖJE ERDVĖJE IR TERITORINĖ BAUDŽIAMOJI JURISDIKCIJA
CYBERCRIME AND TERRITORIAL CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the application problems of the principle of territorial criminal jurisdiction and related aspects of the determination of the place of commission of a criminal offense in cyberspace. Attention is drawn to the fact that the provision established in Article 4 (2) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter – the CC), that the place of commission of a criminal act shall be the place in which a person acted (or ought to have acted or could have acted) or the place in which the consequences provided for by a criminal law occurred, is applied in determining the place of commission of the act not only in terms of physical location but also in cyberspace. Considering the peculiarities of cyberspace, this article discusses the criteria that could link cybercrime to the territory of physical space. The European Union and international legal acts, the provisions of which Lithuania has implemented in the CC, are also used for this analysis.This article discusses the criteria of the location of a natural person and the location of an information system, and provides explanations as to why such criteria have been chosen to link cybercrime to physical space. Considerable attention is also paid to the criterion of an essential link with the territory of the state. This article concludes that the provisions of the CC establishing the principle of territorial criminal jurisdiction should be harmonized with the changed understanding of the place of commission of a criminal offense in cyberspace.

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