An Argument for Assumed Extra-territorial Consent During Cybercrime Investigations

During cybercrime investigations it’s common to find that a suspect has used technology in a country outside of the territorial jurisdiction of Law En-forcement investigating the case. The suspects themselves may also be located outside of the territory of the investigating group. A country may be able to claim jurisdiction over a suspect or device that is located outside of their terri-tory [1], however, foreign Law Enforcement would not have jurisdiction within the territorial jurisdiction of another country unless explicitly granted. This means that if a suspect or digital device is located in another territory, the in-vestigating country may need to request assistance from the country that has territorial jurisdiction. This request could be in the form of mutual legal as-sistance requests, international communication channels such as INTERPOL and United Nations networks, through a personal contact within the country of interest, etc. It appears to be increasingly common that Law Enforcement will use per-sonal contacts to quickly begin the investigation process in the country of in