Browsing by Author "Noranta, Pauliina"

The thesis reviews the concept of command responsibility under International humanitarian law and International criminal law in the context of cyber armed conflicts. The aim is to examine the existing rules governing armed conflicts as well as the law of command responsibility and to find the elements and characteristics which are most likely to cause uncertainties and challenges in the application of the doctrine of command responsibility in cyber armed conflicts. The observation will be focused on the responsibility of military commanders and on the conduct of cyber attacks constituting a violation of International humanitarian law. In order to understand the topic, the thesis takes a brief look to the development of cyber warfare, the means and methods in cyber armed conflicts and the special characteristics relating to the phenomenon which are likely to cause challenges for the application and interpretation of the rules of International humanitarian law. Furthermore, the conditions triggering the application of the International humanitarian law in cyber armed conflicts will be presented. Similarly, the development, purpose and nature of command responsibility will be discussed. The observation highlights the inconsistencies and political sensitivity of the command responsibility judgments in the history and raises the principal elements of the criminal liability of a military commander which are likely to raise challenges in the context of cyber warfare. These elements will be further discussed in the last part, where the special characteristics of cyber armed conflicts are combined with the elements of command responsibility. Two central questions are the existence of ‘effective control’ between the commander and the attacker and the existence of required standard of knowledge on the part of the commander of the attack constituting a violation. The inconsistencies and ambiguities of the law of command responsibility will observed critically in the light of its double-sided interest of ensuring the compliance with International humanitarian law and enforcing criminal liability in consistence with the fundamental principles of criminal law. The political sensitivity of both command responsibility and the cyber phenomenon will be taken into account in the discussion.