Carr, MM; Erskine, T; (2016) Beyond “Quasi-Norms”: The Challenges and Potential of Engaging with Norms in Cyberspace. In: Osula, A-M and Roigas, H, (eds.) International Cyber Norms Legal, Policy & Industry Perspectives. (pp. 87-109). NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence: Tallinn, Estonia.

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Abstract

As in any realm of human activity, norms are unavoidable in cyberspace. Yet cyber- space is a singularly complex setting within which to understand and try to shape norms. The problem is not simply the nature of cyberspace, although, as we will address below, acknowledging the unique characteristics of cyberspace is crucial when exploring norms in this realm. Rather, the challenge lies in the often over- looked nature of norms themselves and how their defining features render them especially difficult to decipher – and, by extension, to attempt to design – in the context of cyberspace. Norms are widely-accepted and internalised principles or codes of conduct that indicate what is deemed to be permitted, prohibited, or required of agents within a specific community. The modest aim of our chapter is to explore the challenges and potential of engaging with norms in cyberspace. By ‘engaging with norms in cyberspace’ we mean both understanding existing norms and the more prominent endeavour (prevalent in recent discussions of policies related to both cyber security and Internet governance) of what is variously described as ‘cultivating’, ‘promoting’ or ‘developing’ new norms.2 Our focus throughout most of this chapter will be on the former. Indeed, a central point of the argument that will follow is that one can- not hope to ‘cultivate’ norms in cyberspace without first understanding the existing normative landscape. In order to explore the challenges and potential of engaging with norms in cyberspace, we will take five steps. First, we will elaborate upon the definition of ‘norms’ offered above. In doing this, we will draw on influential work from within the discipline of International Relations (IR), and specifically from the multifaceted approaches labelled ‘normative IR theory’ and ‘constructivism’.3 Second, we will introduce a task that is fundamental to understanding existing norms in any realm, including cyberspace: interpreting the norms themselves. Third, we will highlight the characteristics of cyberspace that render this crucial task particularly difficult; namely, that it is a new and rapidly changing realm in which underlying values are contested and relevant agents are often difficult to identify. Fourth, we will link the difficulties of addressing norms in such a realm with the tendency to invoke what we will call ‘quasi-norms’, or merely purported norms. Fifth and finally, we will turn to the potential to engage with norms in cyberspace, regardless of obstacles, by uncovering what we will call the ‘norm of de-territorialised data’ and, in the process, demonstrating how evidence for its status as such can be uncovered in the justifications and judgements that agents in international politics offer when it is violated. Our hope is that these preliminary steps will take us some distance towards establishing a conceptual framework for speaking more coherently about norms in cyberspace.

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