Today marks the launch of Tallinn Manual 2.0, a key text on how existing international law applies to cyber operations. It was authored by 19 international law experts, and Just Security‘s Michael Schmitt led the initiative. To kick off the launch, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, the Atlantic Council, and the Netherlands Embassy to the US are hosting an event in Washington today at 3:30 p.m. The live webcast of the event can be viewed here.
Liis Vihul, the managing editor of the Tallinn Manual 2.0, will give an overview of the analysis. A panel discussion on international law and cyber operations will feature Schmitt, Rutger van Marissing (senior policy officer at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Jason Healey (senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and Columbia University).
The focus of the original Manual was on the most severe cyber operations, those that violate the prohibition of the use of force in international relations, entitle states to exercise the right of self-defence, and/or occur during armed conflict. Tallinn Manual 2.0 adds a legal analysis of the more common cyber incidents that states encounter on a day-to-day basis and that fall below the thresholds of the use of force or armed conflict. The expanded edition, like its predecessor, represents the views of its authors, and not of NATO, the NATO CCD COE, its Sponsoring Nations, or any other entity. More information is available at https://ccdcoe.org/research.html. The updated and considerably expanded second edition is published by Cambridge University Press.