Wheatley: Foreign Interference in Elections under the Non-intervention Principle

Steven Wheatley (Lancaster Univ. - Law) has published Foreign Interference in Elections under the Non-intervention Principle (Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law, Vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 161-197, 2020). Here's the abstract:

This article looks at the problem of foreign state cyber and influence operations targeting democratic elections through the lens of the non-intervention principle. The work focuses on the meaning of “coercion” following the 1986 Nicaragua case, wherein the International Court of Justice concluded that “Intervention is wrongful when it uses methods of coercion.” By explaining the meaning of “coercion,” this article demonstrates that the long-established principle of non-intervention can regulate the new problem of cyber and influence operations targeting elections, including the hacking of the information and communications technologies used in elections and fake news operations and disinformation campaigns intended to cause policy paralysis or manipulate the views of the population.