This article addresses whether sovereignty functions as a binding rule of international law in cyberspace or merely as a background principle. The authors, Peter B.M.J. Pijpers and Bart G.L.C. van den Bosch, argue that sovereignty is a binding rule, but that in the cyber context it rests on political independence rather than territorial integrity, since remote cyber operations often cause no physical or functional damage.
To substantiate this claim, the authors compare the 1965 usurpation of state functions in Southern Rhodesia to a hypothetical present-day case of election interference carried out through cyberspace, arguing that a cyber operation launched from abroad can violate a state's inherently governmental functions, such as taxation, law enforcement, or elections, even without violating territorial integrity.