Innocent Packets. Applying Navigational Regimes from the Law of the Sea Convention by Analogy to the Realm of Cyberspace

摘要

Developments in information operations have provoked considerable debate in legal circles and corresponding concerns among operational commanders over the legal framework to be applied to information warfare. Initially, some U.S. government lawyers suggested the application of modern information systems technology to military purposes was so new that no law applied. However, as lawyers and war fighters began to work with the rapidly emerging technology it was recognized that many traditional military activities included under the umbrella term of 'information operations' were actually physical attacks on information systems by traditional military means. Applying international law to information operations involving physical attacks is less difficult for commanders and their lawyers because the laws regulating traditional military operations have been reasonably well settled by treaties and through the customary practice of States.