Abstract: The advent of the digital era has reshaped the global governance landscape and the operational logic of state power. As a key production factor, data has increasingly highlighted sovereignty issues arising from its cross-border flow and security protection. Data sovereignty has become the core extension of national sovereignty in the digital domain. Constitutional order, as the fundamental institutional framework of national governance, provides a legitimate foundation and value guidance for the construction of data sovereignty. Meanwhile, the rise of data sovereignty has brought profound changes to the traditional constitutional order. This paper centers on the “interactive relationship between data sovereignty and constitutional order" and systematically expounds four core viewpoints. First, the sovereign legal characteristics of data sovereignty inherently correspond to traditional national sovereignty, with both relying on and supporting each other to form a complete system of national sovereignty. Second, the construction of data sovereignty has broken through the boundary constraints of traditional national sovereignty, with data producers, enterprises, and individuals becoming important subjects influencing the operation of sovereignty. There is an urgent need to reconstruct the relationship between the state, society, and individuals under the traditional constitutional value framework and to establish a new public power model featuring collaboration between public and private powers. Third, the constitutional order in the context of data sovereignty must respond to the demands for rights protection of vulnerable data groups, enhance their ability to exercise data rights through affirmative action, and achieve substantive justice in the data field. Fourth, the unified rule of law in the construction of data sovereignty is a prerequisite for the formation of a new constitutional order, with both promoting and dialectically unifying each other. This paper, through normative analysis, historical analysis, and comparative research, deeply explores the internal logic of the construction of data sovereignty and the transformation of constitutional order, providing theoretical support and practical paths for safeguarding national sovereignty and improving constitutional order in the digital era.

Keywords: Data Sovereignty; Constitutional Order; Public- private Power Coordination; Data-vulnerable Groups; Unified Rule of Law

Author: Mo Jihong, a member of CASS, research fellow and director, CASS Institute of Law; professor and doctoral supervisor, and dean, Law School of the University of CASS;

Source: 4 (2026) Journal of Northeast Normal University(Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition).