Digital constitutionalism, constitutionalisation, ICANN, terms of service, Internet bills of rights.
‘Digital constitutionalism’ is an appealing concept to explain the recent emergence of constitutional
counteractions against the challenges produced by digital technology. However, the existing scholarship
does not offer a unitary picture of this notion. This paper carries out a literature review of the topic and
proposes a new systematisation of the theoretical framework surrounding the concept of digital
constitutionalism. It is argued that digital constitutionalism represents a declination of modern
constitutionalism. It does not identify the normative responses to the challenges of digital technology, but
rather embodies the set of principles and values that informs and guides them. Conversely, the emerging
normative responses can be regarded as the components of a process of constitutionalisation of the digital
environment. In light of the adopted definitions, the paper eventually illustrates a new way of mapping the
constitutional responses emerged so far to address the challenges of digital technology. They not only
include the constitutional tools which we could define as ‘classic’ in the context of constitutional law, such
as the binding legal texts produced in the state-centric dimension, but, interestingly, also new instruments,
which are developed in the transnational dimension of private actors.