Cyber-attacks and the Principles Governing the Humanitarian Law: Case Study of Cyber-attacks to Georgia

21 century is the beginning of change in one of the areas of International Law namely the law of armed conflicts. Access to new weapons, technological developments and resorting to today’s tactics, not only lead the insidious phenomenon of war to be totally departed from International Law but by some recent changes, more complexities are added. Conflict and its forms that were primarily being accepted in traditional international law as a principle in International Relations and in the light of subsequent developments of various legal instruments were accepted as an exception in states relations, with the development of technology, these Conflicts and their forms have been transformed significantly faster than the conceptual evolution in rights and obligations. Conceptual evolution in use of force not only has changed the fundamental concepts and principles of conflict but also the elements of traditional conflict and propounded subjects including principle of distinction, legality and legitimacy. With analyzing the concept of cyber warfare, we intend to assess the possibility of extending the rules governing traditional armed conflicts to cyberspace and evaluating its legal limitations. Since this matter would not be possible without concentrating on international practice, Georgian cyber-attacks will be examined as a case study.