Exeter academic to undertake a visiting fellowship at Leiden University

Dr Kubo Mačák will spend the month of April 2019 as a visiting fellow at Leiden University’s Hague Program for Cyber Norms. The Program is located in the Hague campus of Leiden University, an institution that was originally founded in 1575 and is one of Europe’s foremost centres for international research. The research focus of the Program is on the development and implementation of cyber norms and in particular on how norms are and can be applied to support cyber security, stability and peace.

During the fellowship, Dr Mačák will explore the role of non-state led initiatives in the development of international cyber law. He said: “This project forms part of my longer-term research focus of assessing how the rising power of non-state actors challenges and possibly transforms the existing international legal order. While in The Hague, I would like to specifically focus on the contribution of non-state actors, including the Big Tech companies, to those international legal rules that apply to states’ conduct in cyberspace.”

Fellowships at the Hague Program for Cyber Norms are offered on a competitive basis to scholars and practitioners from around the world with the aim of fostering foster the exchange of expertise on cyber norms. The Program is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is part of a continuing commitment by the Netherlands to support the development of international norms and understanding with regard to the development and use of ICTs and related new technologies, following the Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) hosted in The Hague in 2015.