Acceso usuarios
[1]
;
Viacheslav Shevchenko
[2]
;
Dmytro Rybka
[3]
;
Alla Adamovych
[3]
;
Mykhailo Taran
[3]
Technological advancements in digital communications have led to an explosion of different forms of harm that present significant challenges to existing protections of human dignity found in the criminal laws of jurisdictions around the world. Conduct facilitated via technology can be distributed instantaneously; duplicated endlessly; and potentially magnified through technological infrastructure, converting one-off actions into continued and cumulative forms of harm. This raises questions about how to distinguish in the application of criminal law between protected forms of expression and those forms of conduct that are subject to criminal sanctions. In this paper we explore ways in which criminal law can effectively protect violations of dignity that occur in digital environments with the necessary safeguards for freedom of expression. We use comparative legal and doctrinal analysis to evaluate how judges reason about the proportionality principle as it relates to criminal liability for dignity violations caused by conduct that occurs in digital environments. We also develop a structured analytical framework – The Three-Step Test for Crimes Against Dignity in the Digital Environment — based on the principles of legality, legitimate purpose and proportionality contained in international human rights law. Our results demonstrate that increased methodological consistency in judicial reasoning will help provide greater clarity to criminal law responses to digital harms without compromising the diversity of constitutional protection across jurisdictions. Our research contributes to the current international discussion regarding the regulation of digital harm by demonstrating how structured analytical methods can facilitate the balanced and effective protection of human dignity in the digital environment.
