Cyber Warfare and the Laws of War Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law Series

The information revolution has transformed both modern societies and the way in which they conduct warfare. Cyber Warfare and the Laws of War analyses the status of computer network attacks in international law and examines their treatment under the laws of armed conflict. The first part of the book deals with the resort to force by states and discusses the threshold issues of force and armed attack by examining the permitted responses against such attacks. The second part offers a comprehensive analysis of the applicability of international humanitarian law to computer network attacks. By examining the legal framework regulating these attacks, Heather Harrison Dinniss addresses the issues associated with this method of attack in terms of the current law and explores the underlying debates which are shaping the modern laws applicable in armed conflict.

1. The world in which we live and fight; 2. Computer network attacks as a use of force in international law; 3. Armed attack and response in the digital age; 4. The applicability of the laws of armed conflict to computer network attacks; 5. Participants in conflict: combatant status, direct participation and computer network attack; 6. Targeting and precautions in attack; 7. Measures of special protection; 8. Means and methods of warfare.

Heather Harrison Dinniss is a postdoctoral research fellow at the International Law Centre of the Swedish National Defence College. She has previously taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her research focuses on the impact of modern warfare on international humanitarian law; in particular, on advanced and autonomous weapons systems and the status and use of computer network attacks in the law of armed conflict.