With the Timor-Leste v Australia spying scandal before the International Court of Justice, cyber espionage operations like GhostNet and the wiretapping of German chancellor Angela Merkel, legal questions on the legality of peacetime espionage arise. Peacetime espionage, however, is almost completely unregulated by international law and has no agreed upon legal definition. Scholarly work on this matter is scarce. Against this background, there is critical need for an in-depth public international law assessment of peacetime espionage. This article analyzes this very issue and examines the legality of peacetime espionage in light of classical notions of public international law.
