THE METAVERSE: ISSUES REALTNG TO CRIMINAL LAW

Abstract

There is yet no unanimity on the possible positive and negative developments and impacts that metaverse technology may have on humankind, but there is a clear need for the rapid adoption of a shared regulation capable of preventing the risks of harm to fundamental rights and ensuring the protection of rights in general. The legal questions that arise are not insignificant, and they also affect criminal science, regarding the resilience of both fundamental principles and the institutes proper to criminal law like the place where the offense was committed. The basic question is whether the tools offered by law today can be considered sufficient for the purpose of regulating the metaverse and the necessary protections, or whether the introduction of a specific discipline, capable of going beyond the traditional categories in favor of a law of the digital, is indispensable. The proposal of the creation of an electronic jurisdiction directed to the regulation of public relations taking place in the electronic, digital and virtual dimension, of which the metaverse is the most direct example of the cosmopolitan development of humanity, seems to be shareable. Through it, a kind of world citizenship could be achieved, in which electronic persons will acquire status and rights, while human persons will lose some of the rights proper to natural law and positive law and acquire new ones.