Criminal Law Protection of Personality: Implementation of Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime No. 185 of 2001 Into Serbian Legislative

Along with the development of information technologies, the issue of legal regulations that can prevent and sanction cybercrime has gained worldwide significance. EU’s regulatory framework for electronic communications, networks and services is a basis for the national laws of all EU member states. The Council of Europe was one of the first international organisations to put forward an initiative for building up legal presumptions to restrain cybercrime with a joint effort of several countries. The Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia regulated the criminal offences regarding violation of computer data security, thus clearly contributing to a more efficient fight against cybercrime. Still, this regulatory framework did not fully embrace the deviant forms of behaviour manifested as misuse of computer technologies and computer systems (e.g. Internet harassment, unauthorised alteration of the contents published on the Internet, etc.). Also, the issue of jurisdiction regarding the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of these crimes still remains unresolved being that most of such offences have an international character. As Serbia signed and ratified the Convention on Cybercrime CETS No. 185 in 2009, the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia should recognise as criminal offences numerous deviant forms of behaviour (Internet harassment, unlawful interception, Internet frauds, etc.) and establish sanctions for the offenders.