The Internet: subject of an international treaty?

The Internet is the technological tool most representative of the emerging “global community” due to its accessibility and its integration into everyday life. Hence, the international importance of the Internet may come to a point where there will be a need for an International Convention on the Internet (ICI).

Sounds far fetched? Not so. If there was such a thing as a TREATY ON PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE ACTIVITIES OF STATES IN THE EXPLORATION AND USE OF OUTER SPACE, INCLUDING THE MOON AND OTHER CELESTIAL BODIES (entered into force on 10 October 1967), which seems relevant only to a very few technologically advanced States, all the more is there a need for an ICI with the deepening reliance on the Internet for global communication.

What are the possible areas of concern of an ICI? Here are a few:
1) jurisdiction concerning Internet crimes- I think the most challenging of all Internet-related legal problems
2) jurisdiction concerning Internet related claims for civil damages
3) allotment of Internet domain names and addresses
4) protection of the Internet against cyber-terrorism
5) arbitration procedures for Internet related claims

If the ICI will become a future reality, it will again prove what Holmes said: “The life of the law has not been logic. It has been experience.”