Czech Republic Position paper on the application of international law in cyberspace wrongful act and the rights of the injured State that were violated. In this context, the lack of physical damage shall not be considered as an impediment to undertaking justified countermeasures. 66. The Czech Republic recognises that an injured State is required to call upon the responsible State to fulfil its international obligations. Furthermore, prior to employing countermeasures, an injured State is required to notify the responsible State of its intention to take countermeasures and offer to negotiate with the responsible State. The Czech Republic, however, recognises that in case of urgency and in order to preserve rights of the injured State, countermeasures may be undertaken without such prior notification. In either way, given the specific nature of cyberspace that allows attackers to use various spoofing methods, the injured State may resort to countermeasures only if it is able to attribute the internationally wrongful act in question to the responsible State. 67. An injured State is not obliged to disclose evidence to justify resort to countermeasures but rather to be reasonable in its assessment and establish with sufficient certainty the attribution of an internationally wrongful act to a particular State. The Czech Republic recognises that an injured State is responsible for assessment of information in order to resort to countermeasures. Nevertheless, an injured State resorting to countermeasures may commit any international wrongful act if its assessment is carried out incorrectly. 68. The Czech Republic endorses that the State acts in conformity with international law under the principle of necessity when its action not in conformity with an international obligation is the only way for the State to safeguard an essential interest against a grave and imminent peril. This rule may be invoked only in exceptional cases, namely if there is no other real possibility of addressing the grave and imminent peril, such peril is clearly established on the basis of the evidence reasonably available at the time and provided the act would not result in serious impairment of an essential interests of another State or of the international community as a whole. The State may invoke necessity even if the total amount of potential damage has not yet been assessed, such damage also does not necessarily have to be physical. Prague February 2024 16