Cyber Jurisprudence, a Developing Concept

Cyber jurisprudence, a developing concept

By

 S J TUBRAZY

The Latin words jus and prudentia being mutated as jurisprudence in English has been defined as “knowledge of law or knowledge of just and unjust. Etymologically, no doubt this definition conforms to the word but it brings within its compass every branch of law.

In Bragg vs. linden court hold that ‘although the facts of the case are virtual but the dispute is real’.

It is clear however that the virtual acquisitions had the requisites of a “Property” since they had a value, could be owned, transferred or otherwise dealt with. If the value of the property was entirely in the virtual currency such as “lindens’, then the dispute would have been entirely in the virtual space and fit for a “Virtual Court” to decide. But in the instance case, the convertibility of lindens to dollars creates a distinct link to the physical world and hence the dispute spills over to the physical space.

Analogous troubles will arise in the future in several other transactions on the virtual space and we should keep ourselves mentally prepared for accepting new concepts of virtual property and laws relating to virtual property. The initial attempt is of course to extend the known physical society concepts to the virtual space while in due course we need to develop separate Cyber Jurisprudence to deal with such disputes.

If the Bragg’s case is to be decided in Pakistan according to physical laws, the nature of the property being “Land”, the transfer should be subject to “Transfer of Property Act” and “Registration Act”. Transfer of Property Act does not however recognize “virtual land” as an immovable property and therefore the transaction would not be valid under its provisions. If however, the piece of “Virtual Land” is considered a “unit of property” created out of the contractual agreement between the player and the gaming company as well as one player with another player, while it enables application of the concepts of  “Contract Laws”, it conflicts with the basic requirement of “Meeting of the Minds” in contracts. The reason is that in this case, the parties dealt with the “unit of property” as an “Immovable Property” and not as any thing else. If the buyer and the seller thought and acted as if thy were buying and selling a piece of land, it would be in appropriate to adjudicate on the dispute ignoring this basic thought behind the transaction and considering it as some thing else.

Legal issues relating to the electronic and internet in this contemporary world as being necessitated of new kind of jurisprudence, which may be cyber jurisprudence. Cyber jurisprudence gives an analysis of the law where, is no land and even there is no border, where all things may be different from the physical world, they may be virtual from origin and nature. We may find virtual world with virtual rules and policies, along with the virtual subject matter, virtual contract, virtual disputes, virtual property (including tangible or intangible), virtual possession and virtual court. Cyber jurisprudence deals with the composite idea of cyber jurisdiction and cyber court’s venue in the cyberspace. It emphasis to recognize cyber uniform rules and policies at international level, it also discusses with the netizens and netiquates.

The modern jurists have to had getting heads together to endow with the rationale pedestal of jurisprudence to this ruling, now we can ascertain utmost exact definition of cyber jurisprudence as “this describes the principles of legal issues, which exclusively regulates the cyberspace and internet”.

(Writer is lawyer of cyber laws in Pakistan)