The Internet potentially undermines the ability of sovereign states to maintain their sovereignty. However it is not the first technology to elicit innovative responses by sovereign states to maintain their central role in governance. The emergence of international human rights norms, the development of competitive international approaches to defining and enforcing acceptable rules of conduct, and certain unique features of cyberspace architecture facilitate an ongoing role for nation states. L'internet mine potentiallement la capacit des tats souverains maintenir leur souverainet . The development of the Internet and the growth of cyberspace pose new challenges for nation states seeking to regulate citizen conduct and to protect citizens from external threats.
States typically apply legal rules and sanctions to regulate behaviour.
Law is one of a number of tools used to both shape norms of conduct and to legitimize the imposition of coercive measures to induce compliance. The effectiveness of law as a tool rests in part on states' ability to employ legal institutions and policing mechanisms which operate directly on the individuals whose behaviour they are seeking to control. These direct effects depend on states having control over people or property within the political territory over which they assert their sovereignty. First, effective law making depends on exerting physical control over potential law violators. Second, there is a congruence between physical boundaries and the effects of particular behaviour.