Document Type
Article
Publication
The Yale Law Journal
Year
2026
Citation Information
Vivek Krishnamurthy, The Internet and the Lost Law of Transit, 135 Yale L. J. 2371 (2026), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-articles/2088.
Abstract
For centuries, the law of transit has specified when states must permit foreign persons and goods to traverse their territory on journeys beginning and ending beyond their borders. Transit is a right — not a privilege — that tempers territorial sovereignty. Though largely forgotten today, the right to transit springs from states’ responsibilities to the international community when their territory hosts infrastructure of global utility.
Yet the internet stands as a striking exception to this tradition. Despite its importance, no doctrine of transit constrains states’ power to block or disrupt internet traffic that merely passes through their territory. This is no theoretical concern: states are growing bolder in tampering with digital infrastructure, and the internet’s survival as a global network is at risk.
This Article makes the case for extending transit-law protections to the internet. Drawing on the first comprehensive survey of this body of law in decades, it distills six core principles reflecting the field’s logic and coherence across four centuries. These principles expose striking parallels between international transit law and domestic rules governing networks, platforms, and utilities — showing how legal systems across domains converge to constrain those who control essential infrastructure. The Article traces the internet’s exclusion from transit protections to a historical accident and offers a framework for correcting it. In so doing, it aims to restore the balance between territorial sovereignty and international responsibility — and to preserve the internet’s infrastructure as a shared global resource.
Copyright Statement
Copyright protected. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.