Research On The Exercise Of Self-defense Right In The Context Of Cyber Attacks

With the development of network technology,the appearance of cyber attack has a huge impact on economic progress and social stability of states.International community starts to pay attention to how the existing international law govern the cyber attack issues,among which excise of self-defense causes great discussion.Here,this article probes into whether and how the victim country excise the self-defense while it is vulnerable to cyber attack.This article mainly analyzes whether the existing law of war could apply for cyber attack and to which it could be applied for the purpose of clarifying the governing laws of self-defense to cyber attack and confirming the legitimacy of self-defense.First,this article summarizes the notion of cyber attack and mentions the significant cyber attack events of recent years.Based on three different systems of law,namely the UN Charter and customary international law,law of state responsibility and international humanitarian law,this article explores the applicable law for self-defense.In Chapter two,in accordance with article2(4)and article 51 of the UN Charter,the author concludes whether the use of cyber weapons belong to “use of force” and whether it can reach the threshold of“armed attack”,which is the premise of self-defense.Additionally,according to customary international law decided by the International Court of Justice,necessity and proportionality are also the requisites of self-dense.Chapter three discusses how to determine the attribution on the basis of law of state responsibility,especially how to attribute non-state's action to a state.Chapter four describes the limitations of the excise of self-defense in the context of cyber.Finally,this article summarizes the practices of international community and comes up with the solutions to deal with the dilemma of excise of self-defense.With the development of network technology,the appearance of cyber attack has a huge impact on economic progress and social stability of states.International community starts to pay attention to how the existing international law govern the cyber attack issues,among which excise of self-defense causes great discussion.Here,this article probes into whether and how the victim country excise the self-defense while it is vulnerable to cyber attack.This article mainly analyzes whether the existing law of war could apply for cyber attack and to which it could be applied for the purpose of clarifying the governing laws of self-defense to cyber attack and confirming the legitimacy of self-defense.First,this article summarizes the notion and characteristics of cyber attack and mentions the significant cyber attack events of recent years.Besides,due to the specialties of cyber attacks,this article indicates the necessities of exercising self defense right in the context of cyber space,including safeguarding security of states,resolving the challenges to international law because of features of cyber attacks and containing cyber armament race.In second part,this article introduces the practices of main countries and regional organization for exercising self defense right in the context of cyber space.NATO has formulated the "Tallinn Manual 2.0" to play a leading role,and improve the NATO network governance,subdividing power in order to cope with the complexity of network force attacks.The strategic positioning of United States cyber strategies transform from defense to offensive to provide support for exercising the self-defense right in cyberspace.The United States establishes a high-level cyber command to enhance cyber warfare capabilities.Russia prioritizes peaceful resolution to cyber armed conflicts,prudently exercise self-defense rights,and strengthen international cooperation in information space.In third part,based on the existing international legal system,this article comes up with the conditions for the exercise of self-defense rights in cyberspace.The exercise of self-defense rights must conform to the provisions of the UN Charter and customary international law.At the same time,due to the characteristics of cyber attacks,there are complexities in how cyber attacks constitute armed attack.Because of technical and legal factors,attribution is difficult,especially the attribution of cyber attacks by non-state actors..In addition,the principle of necessity and proportionality for the exercise of self-defense rights against cyber attacks also has its particularity.In fourth part,this article proposes two dilemmas of self-defense rights under cyberattacks: the predicament of anticipatory self-defense in cyberspace and the lack of domestic law and international law for the exercise of self-defense rights in cyberspace.Although the technical nature of cyber attacks increases the difficulty of exercising self-defense rights,it also increases the rationality of anticipatory self-defense.In last part,this article summarizes the problems of self-defense rights exercise under the cyberattacks,and puts forward the solutions and suggestions for China to exercise self-defense rights against cyber attacks.At the international level,it is necessary to adhere to the cyberspace sovereignty,abide by conditions and restrictions on the exercise of the right to self-defense.It is recommended to formulate international conventions within theframework of the United Nations and to make up for the status that international hard law is lack in the cyberspace at this stage through international soft law.At the domestic level,China needs to strengthen the construction of network military forces,improve China's voice in cyberspace,and strengthen international cooperation to establish a cyber defense mechanism.This paper investigates the application of core notion of self-defense to cyber attack by adopting literature research and comparative analysis,case analysis and so on.Considered the borderlessness,anonymity and rapidity of cyber attacks,this article propose ways to solve the dilemma of self-defense rights,and increase the operability of self-defense rights.As a large network country,China may have problems in the exercise of the right of self-defense in response to cyber attacks,such as the conditions are not clear and whether it can exercise the right of anticipatory self-defense.China should strengthen the strength of China's network forces while considering the practice of the international community,and actively participate in international legislation related to cyber attacks,and formulating specific rules for the exercise of self-defense rights in the network environment.This paper provides theoretical support for the development of cyberspace strategy of China.