Chapter

The emergence of international legal norms for cyberconflict

Michael N. Schmitt and Liis Vihul

Binary bullet : the ethics of cyberwarfare

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016

p. 34-55

English

Bibliographie : p. 52-55

This chapter explores the nature, formation, and evolution of legal norms pertaining to cyberactivities in both the jus in bello and jus ad bellum. It discusses how such norms emerge and develop through time. Each source of law is analyzed separately, first in the abstract, and then in its cyberconflict context. The chapter does not dispute the applicability of the precyber-era international law to cyberconflict. As such, its underlying postulate is that cyberconflict is no less subject to extant international legal norms than other forms of conflict. However, the chapter demonstrates that the cybercontext presents unique challenges to the application of existing norms and emergence of new ones. With regard to the latter, the chapter doubts the prospect that new treaties will be concluded or new customary law norms will soon crystallize to govern cyberactivities. Instead, the application and interpretative evolution of existing international law is the most likely near-term prospect.

• Binary bullets : the ethics of cyberwarfare / ed. by Fritz Allhoff, Adam Henschke and Bradley Jay Strawser