Between Digital Shadows and Normative Gaps: Cyberspace as the New Minefield of Ius ad Bellum

Abstract

The disruption of digital technologies has consolidated cyberspace as a new arena for interstate confrontation, in which cyber operations or attacks can have effects comparable to those of conventional, direct armed aggression. However, ius ad bellum, designed to regulate warfare in traditional (i.e., physical or direct) contexts, may be limited in providing a response and a legal framework applicable to digital dynamics. In this regard, this research is based on the hypothesis that the current legal framework—whose cornerstone is the prohibition of the use of force and the right to self-defense enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations—must be adapted to respond to the technical and strategic particularities of ‘cyberwarfare’.
Thus, the central objective of this study is to reinterpret ius ad bellum by incorporating the cyber threshold. To this end, it proposes to redefine the concept of ‘armed attack’, strengthen mechanisms of attribution and international responsibility, as well as the application of the principles of proportionality and necessity to digital self-defense. Through a qualitative analysis of norms, doctrines, and empirical cases, it seeks to arrive at a useful proposal for the reinterpretation of ius ad bellum and a hybrid framework that articulates international law with digital security, integrating legal and technical tools that.