Rules for State Conduct in the Cyber Domain

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explains the puzzling 2013 agreement of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on cybersecurity that existing international law applies to state military use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the 2015 GGE report that extended the consensus reached in 2013. These important developments in the emergence of rules and norms for cyberspace took place despite deteriorating relations between the United States and Russia. They also took place despite increasing global contention over Internet governance and cybersecurity issues more broadly, and occurred with less controversy than related (but lower-priority) Internet governance issues. The chapter argues that the 2013 and 2015 GGE reports were reached in large part as a result of a conscious process of rule-making and interpretation structured by agreed-upon secondary rules, and that the timing of the agreements reflected emerging consensus among participants despite remaining divergence on substantive preferences about governance arrangements for cyberspace.