CYBER OPERATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

The following work is the product and outcome of a PhD thesis with the same title, developed between 2014 and 2022. In short, the aim of the work was to assess cyber operations, meaning the employment of capabilities through data streams in order to achieve objectives against or through data streams, from the perspective International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
That assessment is divided into two parts. In the first part, the reader will find the answer to the question of “when” IHL applies to cyber operations. As such, it addresses the topics of qualifying cyber operations as a use of force in cyberspace, the extent to which cyber operations initiate an armed conflict, the issue of attribution in cyberspace or the conditions for applying IHL to cyber operations during an armed conflict. In the second, the question addressed is that of “how” IHL applies in the cyber realm. As such,
the premise is that IHL is applicable to cyber operations and the assessment focuses on determining whether there are issues with the existing legal norms governing to cyber operations. In particular, it looks at the rules concerning the conduct of hostilities, such as the extent to which acts of cyber violence – that do not cause physical damage – may constitute attacks, or the effectiveness of applying IHL principles to the cyber world; the rules concerning the status of cyber-participants in hostilities, such as the relevance of the visual requirements in cyberspace, the extent to which certain groups, like organised militias or a levée en masse may exist in cyberspace alone, how cyber operations influence the conditions for the direct participation in hostilities, or the rules not directly linked to armed conflicts, namely foreign military occupation and the law of neutrality.