Wikileaks and International Law

As most of you will have seen, the Wikileaks issue is back in the news, as a new and large batch of diplomatic cables has been released, and reports surface that the entire cache of cables is actually available somewhere on the web.

An investigation is ongoing in the U.S. to determine whether Julian Assange, the principal and founder of Wikileaks, should be prosecuted under U.S. law, specifically the 1917 Espionage Act. (For those interested in reading more on the entire sage of the Wikileaks disclosure of classified military and diplomatic cables, a useful collection can be found on the New York Times website here).

There are obvious constitutional issues raised by such a prosecution (1st amendment); but what issues would such a prosecution raise from an international law perspective? We will address this later in the course, but give it some thought. What principle of international law might be implicated?