You will all have heard about the growing furor over NSA spying in foreign countries, including on the leaders of a number of countries that are friends and allies of the U.S. Now a number of outraged allies, lead by Germany and Brazil, are moving to propose a U.N. General Assembly Resolution on the issue of restraining such conduct.
What does international law say about this kind of spying? Can we separate that which is permissible, even if perhaps not wise or diplomatic, from that which is actually in violation of international law? How would you go about exploring these questions?
Articles 22, 24, and 27 of the Vienna Convention of 1961 seem to protect the content of diplomatic documents and communications between states. Thus, recent U.S. espionage has most certainly violated this Treaty. However, there may be situations in which spying of a similar nature is legal; namely, a state may engage in legal espionage if it has a legitimate reason for doing so. An example of a legitimate reason for spying could be self defense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jason that espionage could be used for self-defense, but presumably that would be 100% of the time. It seems to me there must be some limit on how far espionage could legally go. The line is hard to draw in part because inherent in the nature of spying itself is that the other side never knows it is happening. It is tough to make rules against actions that are not known.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Jason and Josh. I think another problem with making a rule limiting the reach of spying would not only be how to actually make the rule, but how to enforce it. Like Josh said, secrecy is inherent in the nature of spying. So it seems, then, that any rules that were made would be more aspirational in nature, but may lack the necessary 'bite' to actually punish countries.
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