12 Oct 2021

The Faculty of Law at the University of Karbala discussed the doctoral thesis tagged: “Digital espionage in light of the rules of public international law.” The thesis was submitted by the student “Zainab Riad Jabr”.
The thesis aimed to analyze the main problem in the issue of digital espionage, which is the lack of international legal regulation for this attack, and this is due to the importance of digital espionage or espionage by modern means to the countries that practice it, where digital espionage is one of the intelligence activities to collect information carried out by states or non-state actors States with the support of other States or any person of public international law.
The thesis reached the adaptation of digital espionage as a modern method of traditional espionage, and this adaptation is in accordance with the general rules in both international law, according to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, and in accordance with the provisions of activating the right of legitimate defense, and in international humanitarian law by adapting the texts of the Geneva Conventions such as Article 49 and 36 of Additional Protocol I, and also according to customary rules in the Tallinn Handbook.
The researcher recommended the need for an explicit international agreement regarding digital espionage to categorically deny the controversy surrounding it, as well as to activate the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court with regard to the crime of digital espionage and to include it within the crime of aggression.

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