하이브리드 전쟁 수단으로서의 법률전(Lawfare)의 맥락과 개념

The outlawry of war achieved by the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 was indeed a tremendous development in the world history. The Charter prohibited the threat or use of force with only two exceptions of self-defense and of the authorization of the Security Council. Furthermore, the rise of human rights in the aftermath of the World War II led to strict regulation of conducts of war, especially through international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law. Against this backdrop, States have refrained from using military forces as a means to promoting their national interests. Even when they did, they tried to avoid the appearance of an armed conflict as much as possible so as to avoid being restricted by international law of armed conflict. In this context, the phenomenon of ‘hybrid warfare’ or ‘political warfare’ became an important feature of international relations. Exploiting the gray area between war and peacetime, States engaged in ‘hybrid warfares’ might employ both the low-level use of force and other policy options encompassing the areas of politics, diplomacy, economy and law etc. ‘Lawfare’ indicates using law, in particular international law, as a means to secure national interests by politicizing and weaponizing law in the context of an armed conflict or of a hybrid warfare. In the present international relations, States quite often employ lawfare strategies, which became a matter of great interest for both policy-makers and scholars.