Summary

Territoriality is considered to be the central concept of international law, which refers both to the essence of jurisdiction as well as the essence of sovereignty. Territorial sovereignty refers to the state having control over its territory. This also applies to cyberspace. However, the perceptions about how to delimit enforcement jurisdiction in cyberspace are different. This article concentrates on the delimitation of enforcement jurisdiction in cross-border remote searches. In this context, remote search refers to a search performed on a (computer) system and expanded through this (computer) system to other (computer) systems located elsewhere, or to a search carried out through (computer) systems of investigative bodies that conduct criminal proceedings. The article analyses whether cross-border remote research constitutes a cross-border exercise of enforcement jurisdiction and can thus be regarded as a violation of the territorial sovereignty of another country, as well as if and how the uncertainty of the location of the data affects such search. Although of all procedural acts, this article focuses only on remote search, the issue of enforcement jurisdiction is important in the context of all procedural acts of a cross-border nature.