The Internet and the Lost Law of Transit, Vivek Krishnamurthy, Assoc. Prof., Univ. of Colorado Law

States are increasingly using their control over Internet infrastructure to block, reroute, or disrupt traffic that merely passes through their territory. The conventional view holds that they are entitled to do so because Internet infrastructure located within their borders is subject to their territorial sovereignty. Despite the transboundary harms caused by these actions, international law imposes few clear limits on them. In this talk, I argue that it should.

Long before the Internet existed, international law developed the law of transit—a centuries-old doctrine that limits how States may exercise territorial control over infrastructure essential to international connectivity. Recovering this largely forgotten tradition, I identify six recurring principles that have governed roads, rivers, railways, shipping routes, and other transit networks for generations. I then show that remarkably similar principles appear in domestic law governing utilities, common carriers, and digital platforms, revealing a broader legal logic that constrains both sovereign and private control over essential infrastructure. Finally, I explain why the Internet’s exclusion from this tradition was a historical accident rather than a deliberate legal choice. Applying transit law to digital infrastructure offers a principled framework for preserving global connectivity while accommodating legitimate security and sovereignty interests.

Vivek Krishnamurthy is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic (TLPC) at the University of Colorado Law School.

Vivek’s teaching, scholarship, and clinical legal practice focus on the complex regulatory and human rights-related challenges that arise in cyberspace. He advises governments, companies, and advocacy organizations on the human rights impacts of new technologies and is a frequent public commentator on emerging technology and public policy issues.

Vivek was previously the Samuelson-Glushko Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa, where he served as the director of CIPPIC— the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. He is a Rhodes Scholar and clerked for the Hon. Morris J. Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada upon his graduation from Yale Law School. Vivek is currently a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, an Associate Member of the Centre for Law, Technology & Society at the University of Ottawa, and a Trustee of the International Bar Association Foundation.