CYBER WARFARE AND THE LAW OF NEUTRALITY
AUTHOR – SNEHA SMRITI, STUDENT AT THE WEST BENGAL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF JURIDICAL SCIENCES, KOLKATA
BEST CITATION – SNEHA SMRITI, CYBER WARFARE AND THE LAW OF NEUTRALITY, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPACE LAW AND POLICY (IJSLP), 2 (1) OF 2024, PG. 52-60, APIS – 3920 – 0014 & ISSN – 2584-1955.
Introduction
In the popular sense of the term, neutrality can be interpreted as abstaining from the war. As a result of this, the concept of neutrality has existed hand in hand with warfare itself. It is for states who choose to abstain from hostilities while others are fighting[1].The law of neutrality performs a dual protective function by safeguarding both the belligerent interests against intervention from neutral states and the sovereignty of the neutral state from prolonged hostilities[2].When hostilities take place in or through cyberspace, the law of neutrality is frequently questioned, even though it plays a crucial part in the understanding of an international armed conflict which is accompanied by the presence of conventional weapons. Applied to the cyber context, the law would protect the cyber infrastructure present in the territory of the neutral state obligating the belligerents to respect the inviolability and sovereignty of nations that are not involved in the ongoing international conflict.
The paper will start by analysing the nature and functioning of cyberspace and the way in the in which the current idea of sovereignty would get integrated with the same. This would include understanding the ambit of sovereignty in the newest frontier while comparing it with its essence in the land, sea, air and outer space. In the next part we will understand the law of neutrality and the duty it creates. This would be divided into two parts, focusing on the obligations of both the belligerents as well as the neutral states. This would be followed by analysing the probable ways in which the law of neutrality would come into play in probable scenarios like cyber-attack using the servers of a neutral state or by using a CERT network. Then, we would be considering a case study, the cyber attacks which took place in Georgia to understand the probable way in which the law could have been used. We will end the paper by trying to reach a probable way forward.
Keyword: Cyber Warfare, Sovereignty, Belligerents, Neutrality
[1] Philip C. Jessup, Neutrality: Its History, Economics and Law, 4 Economics and Law 3, (1976).
[2] Patrick W. Franzese, Sovereignty in Cyberspace: Can It Exist? , 64 AFLR, 1-42 (2009).