Abstract/Summary

Last week, Israel’s Deputy Attorney General for International Law, Dr. Roy Schöndorf, delivered an important virtual speech on his nation’s positions regarding the application of international law in cyberspace at the “Disruptive Technologies and International Law” conference hosted by the US Naval War College’s Stockton Center for International Law. The sophisticated presentation described Israel’s legally cautious, and occasionally surprising, positions on many of the issues that lie at the heart of the ongoing international discourse, including at multilateral fora like the Group of Governmental Experts and Open-Ended Working Group that are dealing with cyber norms. In this two-part series, I will assess Israel’s methodology and positions. Part I examines the approach Israel takes when engaging in the complex task of determining if and how specific rules apply in the cyber context, as well as its views on key aspects of sovereignty, intervention, due diligence, attribution and countermeasures. Part II will consider Israel’s positions on the jus ad bellum, the body of law governing when states may resort to force as an instrument of their national policy, and the jus in bello (international humanitarian law), which includes the rules that govern how cyber operations may be conducted during armed conflicts.