Submarine Communication Cables and Belligerent Rights in Armed Conflict

Abstract

Abstract This article takes up the significant yet understudied issue of belligerent rights regarding submarine communication cables in armed conflict. The article takes up three key questions that have persistently evaded clarity. First, what actually is the law applicable to cables in wartime? Second, how is this law to be applied in practice? And third, is it fit for purpose? The article concludes that, as a matter of lex lata, no lex specialis rules have emerged specific to the protection of submarine cables in armed conflict, either in treaty or customary international law. However, this does not MEAn that belligerents are free to target submarine cables in times of armed conflict. Instead, important international law constraints are to be found in general IHL principles, the law of neutrality, and law of the sea protections that persist in times of armed conflict. Applied to the technical configurations of submarine cables as currently deployed and used, it is far from clear that these rules and principles permit the targeting of submarine cables in wartime.