Cyber Operations and International Law

A comprehensive analysis of the international law applicable to cyber operations, including a systematic study of attribution, lawfulness and remedies.

François Delerue (Author)

9781108748353, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 July 2021

544 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm, 0.782 kg

'The author has articulated technical and legal issues in such a way that a pure legal mind will also grasp the technical part and be able to relate with legal norms and principles. … The uniqueness of the book is vivid … For future disputes relating to state responsibility for cyber operations, this book will surely be a guiding text, because articulated case studies and hypothetical examples will guide to draw arguments.' Mostafa Hosain, Bangladesh Journal of Law

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the international law applicable to cyber operations, including a systematic examination of attribution, lawfulness and remedies. It demonstrates the importance of countermeasures as a form of remedies and also shows the limits of international law, highlighting its limits in resolving issues related to cyber operations. There are several situations in which international law leaves the victim State of cyber operations helpless. Two main streams of limits are identified. First, in the case of cyber operations conducted by non-state actors on the behalf of a State, new technologies offer various ways to coordinate cyber operations without a high level of organization. Second, the law of State responsibility offers a range of solutions to respond to cyber operations and seek reparation, but it does not provide an answer in every case and it cannot solve the problem related to technical capabilities of the victim.

1. Does international law matter in cyberspace? Part I. Attribution: 2. Attribution to a machine or a human: a technical process
3. The question of evidence: from technical to legal attribution
4. Attribution to a state
Conclusion of Part I
Part II. The Lawfulness of Cyber Operations: 5. Internationally wrongful cyber acts: cyber operations breaching norms of international law
6. The threshold of cyber warfare: from use of cyber force to cyber armed attack
7. Circumstances precluding or attenuating the wrongfulness of unlawful cyber operations
8. Cyber operations and the principle of due diligence
Conclusion of Part II
Part III. Remedies against State-Sponsored Cyber Operations: 9. State responsibility and the consequences of an internationally wrongful cyber operation
10. Measures of self-help against state-sponsored cyber operations
Conclusion of Part III
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS], Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], International relations [JPS]