The Code IS the Law: Private Norm-Making in the Cybersecurity Governance of Outer Space

Who governs cybersecurity in orbit? Not states. As satellite broadband providers like Starlink become critical wartime infrastructure, the normative vacuum is being filled not by treaty, but by the engineering choices and contractual practices of private corporations. Drawing on research on satellite broadband governance and technology’s role in international norm development, this talk maps how operators function as de facto lawmakers through three mechanisms: technical standard-setting, contractual cascades across jurisdictions, and crisis behaviour (Viasat 2022 as norm emergence under fire). The result is an accountability gap: rules exist, but no state agreed to them, no tribunal can review them. The talk proposes reintegrating private norm-making into the international legal order via due diligence and requirements and asks what existing guidance for states (including the 2025 CCDCOE/Japan MFA Handbook on National Positions) misses when private actors write the rules first.

Location :
- Track 1(HALL B)
Category :
- Law&Policy
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Speakers

Joanna Kulesza

ジョアンナ・クレシャ

Joanna Kulesza is Assistant Professor of International Law at the University of Lodz, Poland, and Executive Director of the Lodz Cyber Hub research center. Her research focuses on sovereignty, jurisdiction, due diligence, and fundamental rights in cyberspace, with a particular emphasis on internet governance and the role of private actors in international norm development. She is a founding member of the Sino-European Expert Working Group on the Application of International Law in Cyberspace, serves as Governmental Advisory Committee Liaison at ICANN, and is a member of the Oxford Process on International Law Protections in Cyberspace. She served on the Scientific Committee of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (2019–2024). She serves as Course Director for "Cybersecurity and International Law" at the European Security and Defence College and is the author of International Internet Law (Routledge, 2012) and Due Diligence In International Law (Brill, 2016).

Joanna Kulesza is Assistant Professor of International Law at the University of Lodz, Poland, and Executive Director of the Lodz Cyber Hub research center. Her research focuses on sovereignty, jurisdiction, due diligence, and fundamental rights in cyberspace, with a particular emphasis on internet governance and the role of private actors in international norm development. She is a founding member of the Sino-European Expert Working Group on the Application of International Law in Cyberspace, serves as Governmental Advisory Committee Liaison at ICANN, and is a member of the Oxford Process on International Law Protections in Cyberspace. She served on the Scientific Committee of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (2019–2024). She serves as Course Director for "Cybersecurity and International Law" at the European Security and Defence College and is the author of International Internet Law (Routledge, 2012) and Due Diligence In International Law (Brill, 2016).

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