Russell Buchan
About/Bio
Russell Buchan is Professor of International Law at the University of Reading, UK. Russell has published widely in the field of public international law, including three monographs: International Law and the Construction of the Liberal Peace (Hart, 2013), Cyber Espionage and International Law (Hart, 2018), and (with Nicholas Tsagourias), Regulating the Use of Force in International Law: Stability and Change (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021). He is also co-editor (along with Nicholas Tsagourias) of the Research Handbook on International Law and Cyberspace (Edward Elgar, 2021) and co-editor in chief of the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies.
Recently Published
When More is Less: The US Department of Defense’s Statement on Cyberspace
March 30, 2020
Russell Buchan
On 2 March 2020 Paul Ney, General Counsel to the US Department of Defense (DoD), gave a speech at the US Cyber Command Legal Conference setting out the DoD’s position on the application of national and international law to cyberspace. Robert Chesney (at Lawfare) and Michael Schmitt (at Just Security) have provided a panoramic assessment…
The Jadhav Judgment: Espionage, Carve-Outs and Customary Exceptions
On 17 July 2019, the ICJ rendered its judgment in Jadhav. In brief, this case involved an Indian national (Mr Jadhav) who was arrested, tried, and convicted by Pakistan for espionage and terrorism offences and sentenced to death. India made repeated requests to Pakistan to allow consular access to Mr Jadhav during his period of detention, all…
Economic Espionage under International Law
January 16, 2019
Russell Buchan
In December 2018 the Council on Foreign Relations and the BBC published independent reports identifying China as a prolific perpetrator of economic espionage. Economic espionage describes the state-sponsored theft of confidential information belonging to foreign companies. Once obtained, the state passes the stolen information to domestic companies in order to enhance their competitive position within the market…
Popular articles by Russell Buchan
Self-Defence as an Exception to the Principle of Non-Use of Force: Debunking the Myth
November 29, 2023
Russell Buchan
Introduction Marko Milanovic recently wrote a blog for EJIL: Talk! examining whether Israel can rely on the right of self-defence to justify its military action against Hamas. Marko’s post addresses many difficult questions relating to the law of self-defence and is a must read. In this post I want to focus on one of Marko’s…
Ukranian ‘IT Army’: A Cyber Levée en Masse or Civilians Directly Participating in Hostilities?
In the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhaylo Fedorov announced in a tweet the creation of an ‘IT Army’. According to reports, as many as 400, 000 people from across the world have joined. A list of targets has been published and…
The African Union’s Statement on the Application of International Law to Cyberspace: An Assessment of the Principles of Territorial Sovereignty, Non-Intervention, and Non-Use of Force
A growing number of States have published statements examining the application of international law to cyberspace (for an overview see the Cyber Law Toolkit). On 29 January 2024, the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council adopted the ‘Common African Position on the Application of International Law to the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in…