Kubo Mačák: Paving the Road for International Cyber Law

Dr Kubo Mačák is Professor of International Law at the University of Exeter. He is the author of Internationalized Armed Conflicts in International Law (Oxford University Press 2018) and the co-author of the Handbook on Developing a National Position on International Law and Cyber Activities: A Practical Guide for States, published in 2025.

Kubo’s research focuses on public international law, especially international cyber law, international humanitarian law, and the regulation of emerging technologies. He is particularly interested in how international law applies to cyber activities and artificial intelligence, and more generally how it adapts to evolving strategic and technological realities. He currently serves as General Editor of the Cyber Law Toolkit, the award-winning interactive online resource on international law and cyber operations.

From 2019 to 2023, he served as Legal Adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross, contributing to the Updated Commentaries on the Geneva Conventions and to the ICRC’s work on international humanitarian law and cyber operations. His team published a new Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention in late 2025, which is publicly and freely available on the International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC website. The Fourth Convention is dedicated to the protection of civilians during armed conflict.

Earlier in his career, Kubo worked at the UN International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and at the Slovak Constitutional Court as a law clerk to its president. 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.