The Application of International Law to States’ Cyber Operations below the Use of Force: sovereignty and non-intervention

International law applies to cyber operations – but views differ on exactly how. Does state-sponsored interference in another state's affairs using cyber means – for example, disinformation campaigns in elections, disabling government websites, or disrupting transport systems – breach international law? If so, on what basis, and how are the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention relevant? States are increasingly attributing cyber operations to other states and engaging in the debate on how international law applies, including circumstances that would justify countermeasures.

As states meet to debate these issues at the UN next month, Harriet will explore how international law regulates cyberoperations by states, and consider the prospects of progress at the UN and through other initiatives. 

Harriet Moynihan has been an associate fellow in the International Law programme since 2015, and has worked on international law issues in a number of capacities, including as an academic, a government legal adviser, and in private practice.

As a legal adviser in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Harriet advised on a wide range of public international law issues, including representing the UK in the Council of Europe, before the European Court of Human Rights, and in negotiations on bilateral and multilateral agreements.Harriet’s work currently focuses on the application of international law to new technology including cyber operations, and on China’s approach to the international legal order.

Harriet also advises on state responsibility, international humanitarian law and international human rights law issues in a variety of contexts, including the use of armed drones.

Harriet regularly chairs events at Chatham House and elsewhere, and lectures on international law as part of the Queen Elizabeth Academy Leadership Programme. She has also lectured on international humanitarian law as part of Oxford University’s Diplomatic Studies Programme. She is currently a research visitor at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford, and a visiting fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford.

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The PIL Discussion Group hosts a weekly speaker event and light lunch and is a key focal point for PIL@Oxford. Topics involve contemporary and challenging issues in international law. Speakers include distinguished international law practitioners, academics, and legal advisers from around the world.
 
The group typically meets each Thursday during Oxford terms in The Old Library, All Souls College, with lunch commencing at 12:30. The speaker will commence at 12:45 and speak for about forty minutes, allowing about twenty five minutes for questions and discussion. The meeting should conclude before 2:00. Practitioners, academics and students from within and outside the University of Oxford are all welcome. No RSVP is necessary. Join the PIL Email List to receive information about the PIL Discussion Group meetings, as well as other PIL@Oxford news.
 
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