A practical seminar ‘Legal Aspects of Warfare in Cyberspace’ was held at DAU under the guidance of René Värk, Associate Professor of International Law at University of Tartu.
Professor René Värk told the seminar participants about the basics of legal regulation of cyber operations based on the Tallinn Mechanism on cybersecurity. The participants had the opportunity to express their opinions and discuss the role of sovereignty, state responsibility, the legal side of interference in cyber operations and collective counteraction to such operations, and the specifics of the rules of warfare in the digital dimension.
They also found out when cyber operations can be qualified as the use of force or an armed attack under international humanitarian law (the law of armed conflict).
René Värk:
In contemporary armed conflicts, cyber operations have become commonplace. It is important to keep in mind that cyber domain is not ‘wild west’, and the law of armed conflict applies to such operations. In short, the rules of warfare are relevant in cyber domain just like on the conventional battlefield.
The training was supported by Estonian School of Diplomacy, Estonian Centre for International Development, Svenska institutet in the framework of the #TrilateralDiplomaticInitiative.
