The Centre for International Law (CIL) is pleased to have been a partner institution in the successful convening of the Fourth Annual Symposium on Cyber and International Law, held at the American University Washington College of Law, Washington DC, USA, from 15 to 16 September 2025, followed by a closed door by invitation only workshop on 17 September 2025.

This highly esteemed event brought together current and former State officials, diplomats, world-leading experts, academics, and practitioners to explore some of the most pressing challenges to international law posed by rapid developments in cyberspace. The 2025 iteration, themed “Navigating Emerging Gaps and Seams,” examined States’ growing practice of publishing national positions on international law and cyberspace, the consequences of State silence on this matter, and regional perspectives on the issue. It also engaged with implications for specific areas of international law, such as the law of armed conflict, international human rights law, and international criminal law, as well as questions at the intersection of artificial intelligence, jus ad bellum, and State responsibility. It included keynote addresses by General (Ret.) Paul M. Nakasone (former commander of U.S Cyber Command and former director of the U.S. National Security Agency) and Professor Harold Hongju Koh (Yale Law School).

CIL convened 2 panels dialogues over the course of the Symposium. The first was a by invitation only panel discussion on “Civilian Hackers in Armed Conflicts – Status and Rules of Engagement under International Law,” hosted by the Embassy of Switzerland in the United States. Moderated by CIL’s Danielle Yeow, Lead on Cyber Law and Governance, the panel featured distinguished speakers Tilman Rodenhäuser (Legal Advisor, ICRC); Giacomo Biggio (Lecturer, University of Bristol); Fanta Orr (Director, Global Affairs, Microsoft) and Professor Gary Corn (Director, Tech, Law & Security Program, American University).

The second panel was a focussed discussion on “Regional Perspectives” around the theme of the symposium. Also moderated by CIL’s Danielle Yeow, the panel speakers were Kerry-Ann Barrett (Section Chief of the Cybersecurity Section within the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism, Organization of American States); Jason Tan (Senior Director and Senior State Counsel, International Affairs Division, Attorney-General’s Chambers, Singapore), Dr Fan Yang (Associate Professor of International Law, Xiamen University) and Ori Pomson (Gornitzky & Co).

Trisha Unnikrishnan, a Research Associate with the Public International Law Team at CIL, attended the symposium.

For more information on the Symposium, see link