Dr Hanan Mohammad Al Hussaini
Associate Professor of Criminal Law
College of Law and Political Science
King Saud University, Riyadh
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract:

This research paper addresses the subject of the philosophy of digital criminal policy in its substantive aspect. Its importance stems from highlighting its role in changing the philosophical and jurisprudential perspective of the content of traditional criminal policy to a modern perspective linked to the digital technological revolution. This is to confront the new type of crimes associated with it, which can be called emerging or digital crimes. The research problem lies in the novelty of its topic; where most legal writings and jurisprudential theories have focused solely on discussing the traditional aspect of criminal policy. What further complicates the research is the lack of a single model for criminal policy that can be generalized across different countries.
The paper aims to identify the relationship between modern criminal policy and digitization, and its role in changing the basic understanding of emerging crimes associated with the technological revolution. The scope of the research is limited to the substantive aspects of digital criminal policy in both Egyptian and Saudi legislation because they have brought about radical changes in the criminal legislative structure, ensuring consistency with the modern concept of criminal policy in confronting emerging crimes. This has prompted the researcher to choose these two criminal systems as the subject of his research.
To fully understand the research topic and its problematic, the researcher chose both the descriptive-analytical approach and the deductive approach, both of which relied on describing and defining the concept of criminal policy and its relationship to digitization and deducing the fundamentals of digital transformation—from its substantive aspect—in the legislative systems of Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The researcher also relied on a comparative approach to determine the relevant legislative criminal framework in both countries. He divided the research into two main sections, encompassing its most important themes. The first section addressed the concept of criminal policy and its relationship to digitization. The second section addressed the foundations of digital transformation in legislative criminal policy in Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The research paper concluded with a number of results, the most prominent of which are: the modernity of the term criminal policy and its focus on the legal foundations that guide the legislator when constructing his legislative system in the two aspects of criminalization and punishment, and the strong similarity in the criminal legislative plan in its substantive aspect to confront cybercrime in both Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The research also concluded with a number of recommendations, the most important of which are: the necessity for digital criminal policy to precede the modernization of various legislative systems in the future metaverse technological world to confront its modern criminal phenomena, and the necessity of strengthening and continuing cooperation between Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the fields of legal research; to develop digital criminal policy, and to focus on studying the so-called “legal feasibility of cybercrime legislation,” so that it can be continuously updated to keep pace with technological developments.
Keywords: legislation, digitization, criminalization, punishment, and crime.

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