No consensus report resulted from the yearlong negotiations of the 5th United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on the Developments in the Field of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). As the meeting drew to a close in June, the 25 government officials ended their work with a disappointing acknowledgement that final attempts to report on areas of agreement related to norms and confidence building measures had ultimately failed, leaving the future of the GGE unclear. There was agreement, however, on the reason for the breakdown: disagreement over fundamental aspects of international legal rules. However disappointing the outcome may be for establishing norms for cyberspace, the result says more about the UN political process of seeking agreement on the nuances of international rules and their interpretations then it does about the potential to establish non-binding norms for cyberspace.
So what do the divisions over the interpretation of international law, as illustrated within the GGE discussions, mean for the future development of international law in the context of cyber operations?
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