Overview

Kubo Mačák is Professor of International Law at the Law School and a member of the Exeter Centre for International Law. He was appointed as a Lecturer in 2013, Senior Lecturer in 2016, Associate Professor in 2019, and Professor in 2023. He also led the mooting programme at Exeter Law School from 2013 to 2016. Between 2019 and 2023, he served as Legal Adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.

Kubo’s research interests span general international law, international humanitarian law, and the law of cyber security. He is the author of Internationalized Armed Conflicts in International Law (Oxford University Press 2018). His work has been published in journals including the International Review of the Red Cross, the Journal of Conflict and Security Law, the Leiden Journal of International Law, and the Chinese Journal of International Law.

Kubo holds the degrees of DPhil, MPhil, and MJur from the University of Oxford (Somerville College), and an undergraduate degree in law from Charles University in Prague. In 2012, he was awarded the Diploma of the Hague Academy of International Law.

Kubo has been a Europaeum visiting researcher at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva; a Research Fellow of the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa, Israel; a Gastwissenschaftler (visiting scholar) at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany; and a Visiting Fellow of The Hague Program for Cyber Norms at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.

He has worked at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague and at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. He has also served as a law clerk to the President of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic. He is currently acting as the General Editor of the Cyber Law Toolkit.

For more information and to access the full text of Kubo's publications, please visit his personal website: www.kubomacak.org.

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Research

My research interests fall into three broad areas: 

1. General international law. My focus is on the law of State responsibility, interactions between general international law and specialized regimes, and international civil procedure. I have recently completed a detailed commentary on the core procedural provision (Article 43) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice for the commentary edited by Professors Christian Tams and Andreas Zimmermann (Oxford University Press 2019). I am also conducting research into the law of State responsibility in military space operations within the ongoing Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Operations project.
2. Law of armed conflict. My focus is on questions of conflict qualification, lethal targeting, provision of humanitarian assistance in time of armed conflict, and the overlap between the law of armed conflict and other areas of international law. My recent monograph on The Relationship between International Humanitarian Law and General International Law.
3. International cyber law. My focus is on questions of cyber warfare, legal aspects of attribution of cyber operations, and cyberspace governance. I am currently acting as the General Editor of the Cyber Law Toolkit, which is the product of a multistakeholder ESRC-funded project on International Cyber Law in Practice run in collaboration with the NATO Co-operative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency. Together with Prof. Zhixiong Huang, I am also exploring the differences and overlaps between Chinese and Western approaches to the rule of law in cyberspace, with some of our findings having recently been published in the Chinese Journal of International Law.

I welcome doctoral proposals from qualified and motivated students within any of these three broad areas. Although any application will have to go through the formal university procedure, please feel free to approach me informally to discuss your idea prior to submitting the application.

Research group links

• Exeter Centre for International Law

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• Mačák K. (2023) Will the centre hold? Countering the erosion of the principle of distinction on the digital battlefield, International Review of the Red Cross, volume 105, no. 923, pages 965-991, DOI:10.1017/s1816383123000152. [PDF]

2022

• Mačák K, Macak J. (2022) Regional Consultation of Latin American States 9–10 November 2021: International Humanitarian Law and Cyber Operations during Armed Conflicts, International Committee of the Red Cross.
• Henckaerts J-M, Mačák K, Orkin M, Policinski E. (2022) ICRC Perspectives on the Interpretation of the Third Geneva Convention More Than Seventy Years after Its Adoption, Prisoners of War in Contemporary Conflict, Oxford University Press.
• Mačák K. (2022) The Role of International Human Rights Law in the Interpretation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel Yearbook on Human Rights, volume 52, pages 219-245, DOI:10.1163/9789004532298_008.

2021

• Mačák K. (2021) Unblurring the lines: military cyber operations and international law, Journal of Cyber Policy, volume 6, no. 3, pages 411-428, DOI:10.1080/23738871.2021.2014919. [PDF]
• Mačák K, Lawson E. (2021) Avoiding civilian harm during military cyber operations: six key takeaways. Humanitarian Law & Policy (15 June 2021). [PDF]
• Mačák K, Rodenhäuser T. (2021) Even ‘cyber wars’ have limits. But what if they didn’t? EJIL Talk (9 March 2021).
• Mačák K, Lawson E. (2021) Avoiding Civilian Harm from Military Cyber Operations during Armed Conflicts, ICRC, 58 pages. [PDF]

2020

• Mačák K. (2020) GCIII Commentary: If I can’t feed you, do I have to let you go? Humanitarian Law & Policy (22 October 2020).
• Mačák K, Jančárková T, Minárik T. (2020) The right tool for the job: how does international law apply to cyber operations? Humanitarian Law & Policy (6 October 2020).
• Mačák K, Gisel L, Rodenhäuser T. (2020) Cyber Attacks against Hospitals and the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Strong are International Law Protections? Just Security (27 March 2020).

2019

• Mačák K, Geiss R. (2019) Land Warfare, Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Oxford University Press. [PDF]
• Mačák K, Minárik T, Jančárková T. (2019) Cyber Law Toolkit. [PDF]
• Mačák K. (2019) The Ituri Conundrum: Qualifying Conflicts between an Occupying Power and an Autonomous Non-State Actor. EJIL: Talk! (15 July 2019).
• Mačák K. (2019) Article 43, The Statute of the International Court of Justice: A Commentary, Oxford University Press, 1215-1302.
• Mačák K. (2019) On the Shelf, But Close at Hand: The Contribution of Non-State Initiatives to International Cyber Law, American Journal of International Law Unbound, volume 113, pages 81-86, DOI:10.1017/aju.2019.8.

2018

• Hill-Cawthorne L, Mačák K. (2018) Editorial: The Relationship between International Humanitarian Law and General International Law, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, volume 23, no. 3, pages 323-335, DOI:10.1093/jcsl/kry024.
• Mačák K, Schmitt M. (2018) “Enemy Controlled Battlespace”: The Contemporary Meaning and Purpose of Additional Protocol I’s Article 44(3) Exception, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, volume 51, pages 1353-1380.
• Mačák K. (2018) All Hands on Deck: Cyber Attacks Against Private Companies and International Law. Just Security (9 Apr 2018).

2017

• Mačák K. (2017) From the Vanishing Point Back to the Core: The Impact of the Development of the Cyber Law of War on General International Law, Defending the Core, NATO CCD COE, 135-148. [PDF]
• Mačák K, Prince S. (2017) Constitutional Brexit: Why we need courts to determine the constitutional arrangements of the UK. Politics Home (26 Jan 2017). [PDF]

2016

• Mačák K. (2016) Is the International Law of Cyber Security in Crisis?, Cyber Power, NATO CCD COE, 127-140.
• Mačák K, Prince S. (2016) Why we should respect the Brexit ruling of the Supreme Court, whatever it may be. Politics Home (6 Dec 2016). [PDF]
• Mačák K. (2016) The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict, written by Sandesh Sivakumaran, Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies, volume 7, no. 1, pages 209-220, DOI:10.1163/18781527-00701005.
• Mač‰ák K. (2016) Decoding Article 8 of the International Law Commission’s Articles on State Responsibility: Attribution of Cyber Operations by Non-State Actors, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, volume 21, no. 3, pages 405-428, DOI:10.1093/jcsl/krw014. [PDF]
• Mačák K. (2016) A Matter of Principle(s): The Legal Effect of Impartiality and Neutrality on States as Humanitarian Actors, International Review of the Red Cross, volume 97, no. 897/898, pages 157-181, DOI:10.1017/S1816383115000661.

2015

• Mačák K. (2015) Was the Downing of the Russian Jet by Turkey Illegal? EJIL: Talk! (26 Nov 2015). [PDF]
• Mačák K. (2015) A Needle in a Haystack? Locating the Legal Basis for Detention in Non-International Armed Conflict, Israel Yearbook on Human Rights, volume 45, pages 87-106. [PDF]
• Mačák K. (2015) Military Objectives 2.0: The Case for Interpreting Computer Data as Objects under International Humanitarian Law, Israel Law Review, volume 48, no. 1, pages 55-80, DOI:10.1017/S0021223714000260. [PDF]

2014

• Mačák K. (2014) No Legal Basis under IHL for Detention in Non-International Armed Conflicts? A Comment on Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence. EJIL: Talk! (5 May 2014). [PDF]

2012

• Mačák K, Zamir N. (2012) The Applicability of International Humanitarian Law to the Conflict in Libya, International Community Law Review, volume 14, no. 4, pages 403-436, DOI:10.1163/18719732-12341238.

2010

• Mačák K. (2010) “That’s a Secret I Must Keep to Myself, Your Honour!” Comparative and Theoretical Assessment of Legal Professional Privilege in England and on the Continent, Common Law Review, volume 10, pages 17-20.

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Teaching

Modules taught

• LAW1035 - Constitutional and Administrative Law
• LAW3024 - Public International Law
• LAW3146 - International Law, Conflict and Strategy

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