PHD
PhD Thesis Title: Dichotomies in State-Approaches to Sovereignty in Cyberspace
When States engage in cyber operations directed against infrastructure in other countries, they do so for various reasons. They can notably seek to gather information, prepare further action, neutralize the capacities of the opponent, or use them as a form of retorsion or countermeasure. From the viewpoint of international law, this kind of endeavour can be qualified somewhere on the spectrum between an unfriendly act and a use of force (or eventually an armed aggression). While the threshold for the use of force, or prohibited intervention, has been relatively well defined, considerably less agreement exists on internationally wrongful acts below the threshold of a violation of the principle of non-intervention.
This thesis addresses the notion of sovereignty in cyberspace from two angles: National positions edited and published by States on the one hand and domestic legislation on offensive cyber activities on the other. It investigates the gap between these two expressions of opinio juris and practice and provides a comparative analysis of its characteristics and implications. If fundamental legal principles are shaped by dichotomies, as supposedly in the case of sovereignty in cyberspace, States face profound difficulties establishing tangible black-letter national legislation based on them. Hence, it is relevant to conduct systematic research on this question, which legislators and military commanders face on a daily basis.
Areas of interest
- General Principles of International Law
- Law of Cyber Operations, Law of Neutrality
- Privacy Protection under National Security Legislation
- Data Sharing
Publications and Works
- Yann L Schmuki, The Law of Neutrality and the Sharing of Cyber-Enabled Data During International Armed Conflict in 15th International Conference on Cyber Conflict: Meeting Reality. T. Jančárková, D. Giovannelli, K. Podiņš, I. Winther (Eds.) 2023, CCDCOE Publications.