This seminar will be held online on Zoom. You can register here.

‍

About the book

The International Law of Intelligence: The World of Spycraft and the Law of Nations explores the contemporary legal framework that governs peacetime intelligence operations. It challenges decades of international legal scholarship that have treated spying as either an extralegal construct or one not subject to per se regulations. The book repudiates both viewpoints by suggesting instead that intelligence law has emerged as a lex specialis “self-contained regime” within public international law, one that encompasses a unique set of previously unexplored rules, procedures, and institutions.

The book examines the function that intelligence plays in international law and diplomacy and assesses the legal arrangements between spy and spied in the international community, in light of that function. By incorporating the practice of intelligence agencies into international law, the book reorients the field towards a more descriptively accurate and normatively compelling account. Central to the analysis is a new legal framework, grounded in custom and general principles, that diagnoses intelligence operations at three distinct temporal stages—before (Jus Ad Explorationem), during (Jus In Exploratione), and after (Jus Post Explorationem). The result is a reconceptualization of espionage as a professional practice with a rich history and complex ethical code that both shapes international law and is shaped by it.

More broadly, The International Law of Intelligence, offers international lawyers a chance to navigate espionage’s enigmatic “wilderness of mirrors.” By embracing everything that makes this shadowy practice an “edge case” for the law, readers may be able to free themselves from formalist constraints and positivist stagnations, which may have hindered their appreciation of international law’s fluidity. Trading the barrister’s’ wig for a spy’s fedora reveals fresh insights into the sources, methods, and enforcement mechanisms that shape our world order.

‍

‍

About Asaf Lubin

Dr. Asaf Lubin is an Associate Professor of Law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a Fellow at IU’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research (CACR). He is additionally, a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, an Affiliated Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, and a Visiting Scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Federmann Cyber Security Research Center.