A Brief Primer on International Law and Cyberspace

This article introduces the application of international law to cyber activities, the players in cyberspace, the main issues surrounding international law’s application, and potential future forms of international law in governing cyberspace. Duncan B. Hollis, the author of this article and a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, reminds the readers that although the international world has yet to create “tailor-made rules for regulating cyberspace,” existing international laws apply in today’s use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by states. However, Hollis also points out that international rules do not hold a “monopoly on the regulation of cyberspace” because other regulatory multistakeholder regimes (for example, industry self-regulation) are also vital vehicles in forming the internet’s architecture, especially to regulate nonstate players. Thus, how international law is applied in cyberspace is a centric question in global ICTs in relation to other regulations. Later in the article, he introduces the five main issues of international law’s application to cyberspace: (i) silence; (ii) existential disagreements; (iii) interpretative challenges; (iv) attribution; and (v) accountability. date, the most robust fora for addressing international law’s application are non-state-oriented. Governance of the internet involves a multistakeholder process. Although there are existing issues in today’s law application, the author suggests using the existing laws while formulating a new future multistakeholder governance to address harmful state and non-state-oriented cyber activities comprehensively.