Chapter

Cyber war and the law of neutrality

David Turns

Research handbook in international law and cyberspace

Cheltenham ; Northampton : Edward Elgar, 2015

p. 380-400

English

In this chapter, David Turns assesses the application of the law of neutrality to cyberspace. Turns explains that this is a complicated process because the law of neutrality was devised more than a century ago and was therefore constructed with the intention of protecting the territorial sovereignty of neutral states, namely tangible constructs such as physical territory, territorial waters and territorial airspaces. In contrast, cyberspace is an intangible and interconnected environment. This considerably enhances the potential for operations in cyberspace to implicate third parties. Turns concludes that the law of neutrality is still relevant to cyberspace by analogy and proceeds to examine how neutrality affects the conduct of cyber operations by neutrals and belligerents.

• Research handbook on international law and cyberspace / ed. by Nicholas Tsagourias, Russell Buchan