What International Laws apply to Cyberspace?

Cyber activities have become an integral part of international relations as the interconnectedness of networks, technologies and cyber processes have opened up new opportunities for cooperation between State and non-State actors. While cyber-space has its advantages, it has also created new vulnerabilities, such as cybercrimes including identify theft, hacking, etc. Cyber attacks and their consequences

Cyber activities have become an integral part of international relations as the interconnectedness of networks, technologies and cyber processes have opened up new opportunities for cooperation between State and non-State actors. While cyber-space has its advantages, it has also created new vulnerabilities, such as cybercrimes including identify theft, hacking, etc. Cyber attacks and their consequences are on top of the agenda for every country around the world.

With the exceptions of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, currently, there is no tailor-made international law that regulates cyberspace. Because cybersecurity is very novel and dynamic, there have always been questions about whether the existing international law even applies to cyberspace. This question has been answered by most states and international organizations such as the United Nations General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, the G20, the European Union, ASEAN, and the OAS, who have affirmed that international law does apply to cyberspace.

In 2013, the General Assembly adopted the consensus reports of the UN GGE, in which the member states agreed that ‘International law and in particular the United Nations Charter, is applicable and is essential to maintaining peace and stability and promoting an open, secure, peaceful and accessible ICT environment.’

Other institutions have focused more on how international law applies to governance in cyberspace. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Independent Groups of Experts who authored the two Tallinn manuals have explored how existing international law applies to cyberspace. Furthermore, Microsoft’s President Brad Smith even called on states to conclude a new “Digital Geneva Convention” to regulate state behavior in cyberspace.

International law is fundamental in maintaining security and stability in cyberspace. While there is no consensus on how it should apply to states’ conduct online, international law should apply the same way in cyberspace as it applies in the usual manner. For example, Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the threat and use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state or in any other manner inconsistent with the principles of the United Nations. In this regard, conduct by states can constitute a threat or use of force.

International law provides standards of conduct that states have to follow to ensure peace and stability. Article 33 of the UN Charter on the peaceful settlement of disputes applies equally to disputes in the cyber domain as it does to other areas of state activity. There is thus already a strong and well-established international law framework that applies to the cyber realm, just as it applies to other domains of state activity.

As per the rules of international law, a state is responsible for activities that are occurring on its territory including activities with regards to cyber activities. Not only is a state to be held responsible for activities that are done by its organs and state agents and groups. United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Information Security (UNGGE) Norm 13 (c) provides that states should not knowingly allow their territory to be used for internationally wrongful acts using information and communications technology.

In the 2015 GGE report, states also agreed that the principles of the UN Charter applied ‘In their use of ICTs, States must observe, among other principles of international law, State sovereignty, sovereign equality, the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States. A growing number of international bodies have also recognized this.’

Due to the easy accessibility of the internet, many states are involved in wrongfully using cyberspace such as by spreading misinformation. It is important that each state should take appropriate and practical steps within its capacities to address activities that can harm the other state. Furthermore, there also needs to be international law formulated in cyberspace with regard to the conduct of different states. With the introduction of Fifth Generation Warfare, it is now the right time that international treaties are drafted so that states are unable to harm another state’s national security and political integrity.