E. National versus International Approaches Defining cybercrime depends on the context and purpose for which the definition will be used. In national, domestic legislation, the purpose of defining cybercrime is to enable investigation and prosecution of various offences falling under that umbrella. As such, it may not be useful to define the term either narrowly or precisely, especially when procedural provisions of domestic law could be applicable to acts constituting cybercrime as well as other crimes involving e-evidence.45 In the international context, defining cybercrime is useful for interpreting provisions concerning cross-border investigative powers. Some multilateral treaties on cybercrime extend international cooperation rules “for the collection of evidence in electronic form of a criminal offence”,46 while others specify that international cooperation rules apply to differentiate between “offences against computer information”47 and “cybercrime”.48 This differentiation has led the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to note that “[i]n the international sphere, conceptions of ‘cybercrime’ may thus have implications for the availability of investigative powers and access to extraterritorial e-evidence.”49 That is not to understate the link between national laws and international instruments. To illustrate, note that many concepts in the Budapest Convention draw from national legislations.50 In turn, countries ratifying the Budapest Convention have utilized the Convention’s understanding of cybercrime within their own national laws. This dual integrativeness has helped reduce the friction among national laws, which in turn, improves state coordination and provides clarity through convergence. II. Existing Definitions This section briefly takes stock of selected practices in definitional approaches to “cybercrime” as used (A) in domestic, national legislation, (B) in multilateral instruments on cybercrime and (C) in the literature. A. National Level While a number of countries have legislation dealing with cybercrime,51 only a few countries define “cybercrime” in their national legislation.52 Of those countries with a national cybercrime law, only a few explicitly use the term “cybercrime” in the articles of such law.53 Rather, titles or provisions in national laws pertaining to cybercrime use terms such as: ƒƒ“Electronic crimes” ƒƒ“Computer crimes” Page 71 | Chapter 2 | § A. Working Definition of Cybercrime Table of Contents