The application of 'fundamental rights and duties' of states to cyber operations

This thesis will examine the application of international law to state-to-state cyber operations to determine whether such operations constitute a breach of international law and thus attract responsibility. The scope of consideration of primary rules will be limited to discussion of the so-called 'fundamental rights of states', that is, rights that are inherent in statehood, or the theory of rights that a state possesses by virtue of being a state alone, and not rights that exist only once the state has contracted for them. In that sense, the rights that inhere in statehood are fundamental because they are foundational, emerging from the foundation of the state. The thesis will aim to anchor the interpretation and application of rules of international law to cyber operations in practical case scenarios, both hypothetical and real.

The theory of fundamental rights and duties has no exact identification or distinction, though the 'generally accepted... common core' relate to independence, sovereignty, equality and the self-preservation of states. The thesis will examine the principles of sovereignty, non-intervention and self-determination and their applicability to cyber operations. The thesis hopes to draw on a deep understanding of the applicable rules in a non-cyber context and current state practice to challenge the basis of more specific interpretations of those rules to cyber operations asserted by some states and authors.

This thesis addresses these deficiencies in the literature and complements existing research on the application of international law to cyber operations. Modern developments including the increased role of non-state actors enabled by advances in technology in cyber operations raise difficult issues of interpreting primary rules to apply to a new area of operations that remain insufficiently explored in light of these challenges and has not been given significant attention in the existing literature. Specifically, this thesis offers a critical analysis of interpretations of primary rules in light of the positions of states and existing state practice supported by case studies and hypothetical scenarios to provide a detailed evaluation of primary rules lex lata to cyber operations.

The research aligns most closely to the 'Global Uncertainties' EPSRC's strategies and research area. There are no companies or collaborators involved in the research.

It is part of the nature of Cyber Security - and a key reason for the urgency in developing new research approaches - that it now is a concern of every section of society, and so the successful CDT will have a very broad impact indeed. We will ensure impact for:

* The IT industry; vendors of hardware and software, and within this the IT Security industry;

* High value/high assurance sectors such as banking, bio-medical domains, and critical infrastructure, and more generally the CISO community across many industries;

* The mobile systems community, mobile service providers, handset and platform manufacturers, those developing the technologies of the internet of things, and smart cities;

* Defence sector, MoD/DSTL in particular, defence contractors, and the intelligence community;

* The public sector more generally, in its own activities and in increasingly important electronic engagement with the citizen;

* The not-for-profit sector, education, charities, and NGOs - many of whom work in highly contended contexts, but do not always have access to high-grade cyber defensive skills.

Impact in each of these will be achieved in fresh elaborations of threat and risk models; by developing new fundamental design approaches; through new methods of evaluation, incorporating usability criteria, privacy, and other societal concerns; and by developing prototype and proof-of-concept solutions exhibiting these characteristics. These impacts will retain focus through the way that the educational and research programme is structured - so that the academic and theoretical components are directed towards practical and anticipated problems motivated by the sectors listed here.