Digital and Information Sovereignty in the Constitutional Doctrine of the Republic of Belarus
Abstract
The author investigates the substance of information sovereignty and digital sovereignty by comparing them from the perspective of constitutional doctrine and legal regulation in the Republic of Belarus. The focus is on distinctive features of the said concepts apparently similar in terms of the meaning they carry. The study comes at a time when the concept of state sovereignty is being transformed by the progress of information and digital technologies to cover digital space. The article offers an interpretation of different transformative processes affecting sovereignty through different factors (such as digitization, integration of countries etc.). The author underlines that the regulatory framework governing information sovereignty and digital sovereignty in Belarus relies on policy documents which establish only purposes, objectives and likely risks. However, it is observed the Constitution of Belarus contains enough fundamental provisions and principles to formulate the concepts of digital and information sovereignty as new forms of state sovereignty. Two concepts of digital sovereignty emerging in parallel depending on the holder are emphasized: state digital sovereignty and individual digital sovereignty. It is noted that promoting individual digital sovereignty is part of the task of achieving state digital sovereignty for a balance between the progress of digital technologies and the exercise of constitutional rights and liberties which are not to be restricted. The conducted comparative study has resulted in evidence-based positions on the substance of digital and information sovereignty, the scope of regulating the said forms of state sovereignty in constitutional law, and the criteria behind distinctions in understanding them. The findings of this research can inform the development of constitutional doctrine and improve the national law in Belarus as they contain well-founded practical proposals for legislative amendment.
References
Avakian S.A. (2003) Foreword. In: Levin I.D. Sovereignty. Saint Petersburg: Yuridicheskiy tsentr press, pp. 6–11 (in Russ.)
Barlow J.P. (1996) A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. Available at: URL: https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence DOI: https://doi.org/10.37514/RNT-J.1996.3.6.21
Bellanger P. (2012) De la souveraineté numérique. Le Débat, 2012, vol. 170, no. 3, pp. 149–159. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/deba.170.0149
Couture S., Toupin S. (2020) What does the concept of sovereignty mean in the digital world? Vestnik mezhdunarodnykh organizatsiy=Bulletin of International Bodies, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 48–69 (in Russ.)
Duben’ A.K. (2003) Legal support of information security in the information law system in the Russian Federation. Candidate of Juridical Sciences Thesis. Moscow, p. 89 (in Russ.)
Efremov A.A. (2017) Defining concept of information sovereignty. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki=Law. Journal of the Higher School of Economics, no. 1, pp. 201–215 (in Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/2072-8166.2017.1.201.215
Karev D.A., Chertykovtsev Yu.V. (2025) Digital sovereignty. Pravo i gosudarstvo=Law and State, no. 4, pp. 80–83 (in Russ.)
Kholodnaya E.V. (2024) Considerations on information sovereignty. Vestnik Universiteta O.E. Kutafina=Bulletin of Kutafin University, no. 10, pp. 85–90 (in Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17803/2311-5998.2024.122.10.085-090
Kucheriavy M.M. (2015) Acknowledging information sovereignty in the trends of global information environment. Nauka, novye tekhnologii i innovatsii Kirgizstana=Science, New Technologies and Information of Kirgizstan, no. 12, pp. 22–27 (in Russ.)
Levin I.D. (1948) The sovereignty. Moscow: Izdatelstvo Ministerstva Yustitsii SSSR, 376 p. (in Russ.)
Los L.V. (2023) Individual digital sovereignty: concept and legal guarantees. Securing and protecting rights in the modern world: papers of the international research workshop. Simferopol: ARIAL, pp. 312–318 (in Russ.)
Panshina S.V., Chimarov S.Yu. (2024) Social aspect of personal information sovereignty within the concept of privacy. Gumanitarnye, sotsialno-ekonomicheskie i obschestvennye nauki=Humanitarian, Economic and Social Sciences, no. 6, pp. 192–196 (in Russ.)
Pugachev A.N. (2016) Theoretical and legal dimension of sovereignty from the standpoint of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. In: Statut Vyalіkaga knyastva Lіtoўskaga, Ruskaga і Zhamojckaga of 1566. Papers of a round table. Mіnsk: University Press, pp. 154–160 (in Russ.)
Syrykh V.M. (2007) Theory of state and law: a manual. Moscow: Yustitsinform, 635 p. (in Russ.)
Vinogradova E.V., Poliakova T.A. (2021) Information sovereignty in constitutional law of Russia today. Pravovoe gosudarstvo: teoriya i praktika=Rule of Law, no. 1, pp. 32–49 (in Russ.)
Vinogradova E.V., Danilevskaya-Urbanova I.L. (2025) Information sovereignty in the constitutional state system. Pravovaya informatika=Legal Informatics, no. 3, pp. 126–133 (in Russ.)
Zharova A.K. (2021) Securing information sovereignty of the Russian Federation. Yurist=Lawyer, no. 11, pp. 28–33 (in Russ. )
Zharova A.K., Elina V.V. (2024) Multiple aspects of the concept of “sovereignty of the Russian Federation in the information field”. Pravoporyadok: istoriya, teoriya, praktika=Law and Order, no. 4, pp. 51–55 (in Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.47475/2311-696X-2024-43-4-51-55
Copyright (c) 2026 Shakhnovskaya I.V.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the Licensing, Copyright, Open Access and Repository Policy.
