A Typical Cross-Border Metaverse Model as a Counteraction to Its Fragmentation

The paper addresses the issue of the Metaverse's territoriality and its connection with national and international law. The study provides a brief overview of hypotheses related to the territoriality of the Metaverse and its connection with national and international law. It explores the concept of electronic jurisdiction for the Metaverse amidst the general absence of a unified transnational legal system for virtual environments. The Internet and the Metaverse are increasingly subject to the reality of fragmenting into separate segments, which can have serious consequences for global security and the economy. The risks associated with the trend of "Metaverse fragmentation" or "Splinternet"—the division of the single global internet space into isolated segments governed by different rules and technical standards—are analysed. Innovatively, a theoretical model of a typical Metaverse is presented, potentially creating a cross-border "sandbox" for modeling technological processes, social relations, business, and legal regulation of virtual technologies to develop proposals for unifying the fundamental components of the Metaverse and simplifying cross-border interactions. The proposed Transborder Standard Model of the Metaverse is an abstract representation of systems used to understand, predict, and explain the behaviour of a complex of systems known under the generalised name Metaverse. This model is characterised by a specific structure composed of modules or ecosystems that functionally differ in purpose and structure and are not connected by similar features. However, their combined application ensures the functionality of virtual environments, and their legal regulation, and can serve as the basis for electronic jurisdiction.