Preemption

Preemption

The overlap between computer crime laws and other general statutes raises the possibility that computer crime laws may preclude the application of other statutes even if they are applicable to a computer crime. In some jurisdictions the computer crime laws specify that there is no pre-emption of other laws.FN16 Other computer crime laws are silent on the issue of preemption.FN17

In some instances, it is best to argue that the computer crime law preempts more general state laws covering the same subject matter. This strategy is useful in the relatively rare event that the punishment for computer crime is less than the punishment for the more general law.FN18