A former student of mine and of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT) — Eric Sigmund, Legal Advisor to the International Humanitarian Law Dissemination Team of the American Red Cross – is writing for a blog entitled Humanity in the Midst of War. On October 2, 2012, Mr. Sigmund published Rule #1: The Law of Armed Conflict Applies to Cyber Warfare, stating:
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has steadfastly argued that many of the same principles that regulate battlefield combat also apply in cyberspace.[5] Despite the ICRC’s insistence that international humanitarian law applies by analogy to cyber warfare, the question of whether laws regulating conduct in cyberspace even existed remains unsettled among nations and legal practitioners, including many in the US government. It was therefore a pleasant surprise when Harold Koh, Legal Advisor of the Department of State, affirmed that “[c]yberspace is not a ‘law-free’ zone where anyone can conduct hostile activities without rules or restraint” but which, in some circumstances, may be regulated by the law of armed conflict.
He concludes:
In the end, the application of international humanitarian law to cyber activates will reduce harm to innocent civilians, as well as damage to civilian infrastructure and the environment. Moving forward, more work needs to be done to create consensus on the challenging legal issues presented by cyber security and offensive cyber operations. This will take time, but Koh’s principles do put the United States in a position to lead this conversation internationally and to shape IHL norms in the future.
The vast majority of work that I have seen agrees with Mr. Sigmund and the American Red Cross that the same principles which regulate kinetic warfare should apply to conflict in cyberspace. Particularly notable are the report of a workshop of the American Bar Association and at least two studies by the National Academy of Sciences. [I will add links to those documents.] Agreement is not universal, however. A small number of people maintain that cyberspace is so different and so dynamic that the old rules neither can nor should apply.
You can read the remainder of Mr. Sigmund’s article at this link:
Rule #1: The Law of Armed Conflict Applies to Cyber Warfare « Humanity in the Midst of War
A collection of his articles can be found here.
And, the here is the link to the blog: Humanity in the Midst of War.
Thanks for permission to post your article here, and keep up the good work, Eric!
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