Cyber Operations and International Law Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law Series

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.

François Delerue is a research fellow in cyber defense and international law at the Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM – Institut de Recherche stratégique de l'École militaire) and an adjunct lecturer at Sciences Po Paris. He is also rapporteur on international law for the Academic Advisory Board of the project EU Cyber Direct.