Legal regulation of access limitations to information on the Internet

Elena V. Izotova Legal regulation of access limitations to information on the Internet This graduate qualification work aims at examination of current legislation concerning access limitations to information on the Internet. For that purpose author has chosen to analyze separately judicial and extrajudicial procedure. Accordingly, the main objectives of this research are (a) to define the essence and constitutional framework for right to information, and its permissible extent of limitation; (b) to review the main stages of development of current legislation in this field; (c) to observe legislative mechanism of access limitations to information on the Internet; (d) to compare and analyze national and foreign court practice approach to this question; (e) to identify problems in law enforcement. Based on this research the following conclusions were made. First, the federal law only may establish access limitations to information on the Internet and to such an extent it is necessary for the protection of the fundamental principles of the constitutional system, the rights and lawful interests of other people. Secondly, recently legislation in this field has been toughen, while criticism and constructive feedback from social organizations as well as international practice was disregarded. Thirdly, discretion of administrative authorities as for decisions on access limitations has widened. However, judicial procedure should be a priority. Fourthly, there are several technical issues that remain unsolved, such as mass blocking using IP-address that leads to access limitation to dutiful resources, and production of more and more blocking circumvention tools. Academic Supervisor: Irina J. Bogdanovskaya, Doctor of Sciences, professor at department of theory and history of law and head of laboratory of information law, Faculty of Law, National Research University “Higher School of Economics”.