Cyber Kougeki no Kokusaihou (International Law on Cyber Attacks - A Commentary on Tallinn Manual 2.0)

Tallinn Manual is a comprehensive study on the international law relating to cyber attacks. At the invitation of the Legal NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, based in Tallinn, Estonia, legal experts, led by Professor Michael Schmitt (United National Naval War College), considered the subject and stipulated rules and commentaries. As the first achievement of the study, Tallinn Manual on the International law Applicable to Cyber Warfare was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013. It is called the Tallinn Manual 1.0 and consists of 95 rules and commentaries. Furthermore, the study of peacetime international law relating to cyber operations which was not covered by Tallinn manual 1.0 was conducted and in 2017 Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations was published by Cambridge University Press. Nakatani joined the Tallinn Manual 2.0 project as a legal expert and attended the meetings in Tallinn in June/July 2015, October 2015 and March 2016. The Tallinn Manual 2.0 consists of 154 rules and commentaries. It consists of four parts. Part 1 (General International Law and Cyberspace) consists of Sovereignty, Due Diligence, Jurisdiction, Law of International Responsibility and Cyber Operations not per se regulated by International Law. Part 2 (Specialised Regimes of International Law and Cyberspace) consists of International Human Rights Law, Diplomatic and Consular Law, Law of the Sea, Air Law, Space Law, International Telecommunication Law. Part 3 (International Peace and Security and Cyberspace) consists of Peaceful Settlement, Prohibition of Intervention, The Use of Force and Collective Security. Part 4 (The Law of Cyber Armed Conflict) consists of The Law of Armed Conflict Generally, Conduct of Hostilities, Certain Persons, Objects and Activities, Occupation and Neutrality.
 
The original English book is approximately 600 pages. We consider the precise Japanese translation of the rules with succinct summary of the commentaries is useful for Japanese readers and with the kind permissions of Professor Schmitt and Cambridge University Press we published this book.
 
Tallinn Manual is not a project to propose new international law relating to cyber operations. It is a project to identify existing customary international law applicable to cyber operations.
 
It is of paramount importance to establish the rule of law in cyber space. The Tallinn Manual has already won the high prestige and greatly contributes to the establishment of the rule of law in international community.

 

(Written by NAKATANI Kazuhiro, Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2020)