Yesterday in an op-ed for the Daily Mail, Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt announced the specific actions the company will take to tackle child pornography. The cooperation of technology companies with international law agencies has become a necessary step in the enforcement of civil and criminal law.

But their cooperation is not legally mandated. The question as to which court has jurisdiction over information that is internationally accessible from numerous international servers is ambiguous. As the principles of cyberlaw become defined, there is an emerging need for a supranational court to enforce regulations and hold accountable those technology companies that do not comply.

A supranational court is required to govern the battlefield of cyberspace. In 2010, the National Security Strategy review released by the White House cited cybersecurity as “one of the most serious national security, public safety and economic challenges we face as a nation.”

Cyberattacks have become more common in the last decade with rogue states, including North Korea and Iran, surreptitiously attacking vital U.S. online infrastructure on a daily basis. But when does an attack become a declaration of war? An international treaty, and an international criminal court, must determine when a cybercrime descends into cyberwar.

Many common areas of law cannot simply be applied to the Internet. The everchanging landscape of the Internet led to five focus areas of cyberlaw as outlined by the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School — architecture and public policy, copyright and fair use, intermediary liability, privacy and robotics.

Intermediary liability, pertaining to whether online platforms are liable for its user’s content, has been a contentious issue in light of David Cameron’s battle for online child pornogrpahy policy. Whether an online platform based in one country can be held for data posted by users in countries around the world is still unclear and continues to complicate Internet regulations.

The beneficial aspects of the Internet are found in its freedom. The production and access of information has become a process that transcends spatial distances and — until recently — national borders. However, it is this very freedom that complicates the legal questions that have emerged.

While big tech companies like Google and Microsoft have teamed up with law enforcement to eliminate exploitative images of children from the Internet, an international law must be established to ensure that all web corporations are held accountable for removing all cybercrime activity.

International legal regulations would serve as a deterrent to both states, individuals and tech companies. In all of its forms, cybercrime can no longer be outside the sphere of law.

A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Nov. 19 print edition. Email the WSN Editorial Board at [email protected].