Creating an international tribunal for cybercrime based on UNCLOS model would help deter and resolve cybercrime

Although international maritime law has not established an international tribunal to prosecute acts of piracy, some experts believe that creating such a tribunal would provide a long-term solution to combating piracy.²¹⁷ Employing an international tribunal with respect to acts of cyberaggression would ensure that offenses are not treated differently across jurisdictional lines. At the very least, the existence of an international tribunal with universal jurisdiction over acts of cyberaggression would deter such acts and provide a venue for prosecution where nations otherwise often refuse to prosecute such acts. As with piracy, it may be difficult to compel nations to prosecute acts of cyberaggression in the absence of an international tribunal, where the concept of universal jurisdiction confers a right but does not impose an obligation to prosecute such crimes.²¹⁸ It has been suggested that "while every state should retain the right to redress piracy, the United Nations could create an ad hoc tribunal to have the obligationto redress piracy."²¹⁹ As has been suggested for handling the prosecution of piracy under UNCLOS, an international agreement addressing acts of cyberaggression could allow nations to retain the right to redress cybercrime, while creating an international tribunal that has an obligation to prosecute cybercrime. This type of tribunal would help to preserve national autonomy, while providing nations and private actors with an international forum for redressing their grievances. Since cybercrime, like piracy, has a large impact on private actors who are often the victims of these types of crimes, allowing private actors to pursue justice via access to an international tribunal would encourage nations to bring domestic policies in line with international standards.²²⁰ The availability of an international cybercrime tribunal could also lessen nationalistic resistance to international standards by empowering private actors with the ability to seek international redress for economic injury inflicted by acts of cybercrime.