Journal of Cyber Policy

The Journal of Cyber Policy is launching an open access special issue on Mutual Ways Forward for Cross-Border Data Sharing.

In a globalized and digitalized environment, cross border data transfers and government access to personal information are essential means of obtaining critical (electronic) evidence and preventing national security threats and crime. Governments frequently ask digital platforms to hand over personal data for law enforcement purposes and in some specific cases national security emergencies involving immediate threat to life. This creates challenges for tech companies who often strive to balance assisting lawful crime investigations while ensuring the protection of human rights, primarily their users’ right to privacy.

In the absence of agreed international standards on protection of human rights or of the conditions under which governments may legitimately request tech companies to share personal data, the establishment of legally binding arrangements to govern cross-border data transfers is proving difficult. There is a risk that ad hoc processes arise, which may lack transparency and accountability, potentially eroding fundamental rights and institutional trust. As in the case with other forms of international technology governance, efforts are focusing on the development of voluntary norms and guiding principles among states. Trust and confidence – between states, between states and tech companies and between them and civil society – is essential to the elaboration of such norms as well as to their effective implementation.

The Journal of Cyber Policy is launching a special issue focusing on “Mutual Ways Forward for Cross-Border Data Sharing”. This issue is part of a larger project that addresses the need for innovative and inclusive approaches and solutions to cross-border data sharing in national security and law enforcement contexts. It explores how to build greater trust and transparency between the various stakeholders involved and the criteria under which governments should have access to personal data held by the private sector.

The purpose of this special issue is to garner multistakeholder complementary and/or new perspectives which can contribute to:
a) maintaining dialogue on the issue,
b) offering new perspectives and ideas,
c) building shared understanding of challenges,
d) looking ahead to ‘how’ standards can be developed, shared, and implemented and
e) examples of effective good practices which may act as a source of inspiration for wider adoption.

In so doing, the aim of the special issue is to contribute to ongoing intergovernmental discussions with evidence-led analysis.
To this end, the editorial team of Journal of Cyber Policy enthusiastically calls for papers which explore one or more the following themes. This list is indicative and not exhaustive, and the decision on the final topics to be included in the special issue will be made by the editorial team on a case-by-case basis.

1. Evolution of cooperation between service providers and law enforcement agencies: progress and challenges.
2. Current frameworks and initiatives to access cross-border digital evidence: shortcomings and breakthroughs.
3. Impact of semantics and taxonomies on cross-border data sharing across jurisdictions.
4. Transparency reporting and its impact on improving safeguards and oversight.
5. Future of covert access to data for national security purposes: oversight and safeguards.
6. "Digital Sovereignty" in the context of international data transfers.
7. Transatlantic data privacy regimes and cross-border data sharing: key obstacles and recommendations.
8. Cross-border data sharing beyond liberal democracies: what is achievable?
9. The role of non-government stakeholders in building transparency and trust in cross border data sharing.
10. Impact of emerging tech on cross-border data sharing.
11. Gender and/or global south perspectives on cross border data sharing.

In order to amplify a diversity of voices, experiences and perspectives, the Journal’s editorial team is committed to a diversity in the authorship of papers. This special issue invites work from technical, academic and policy backgrounds, and strongly encourages authors from a wide range of demographics, communities, and countries.

Authors are invited to submit relevant articles for consideration by the editorial team. The Journal will accept the successful articles on a rolling basis which will then be published online. Please note that this call is for the period 2022-2023, for which there are two deadlines for submission:
- Date 2: 15/01/2023
- Date 3: 15/03/ 2023

Interested authors are asked to submit as a first step their abstract and paper outline (400- 600 words), sketching out the key ideas in their proposed paper. The editorial team will then consider the proposals and make a decision with regards to the commissioning of the full paper within three weeks of the submission of the abstract. Completed manuscripts should be between 4,000 and 8,000 words (not including notes and references).

Completed manuscripts or outlines/abstracts should be submitted via Routledge, Taylor & Francis’ ScholarOne system.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article