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

Self-Defence as an Exception to the Principle of Non-Use of Force: Debunking the Myth

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…

Read more

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…

Read more

When More is Less: The US Department of Defense’s Statement on Cyberspace

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…

Read more