International Humanitarian Law and Dual-Use Assets: The Legal Status and Protection of Satellites in International and Non-International Armed Conflicts

Contemporary armed conflicts increasingly depend on space infrastructure. Satellites for positioning, telecommunications, Earth observation and meteorology simultaneously support civilian activities and military operations, placing them in a grey area of international humanitarian law (IHL), which presupposes a clear distinction between military objectives and civilian objects. Recent practice – the cyberattack against the Viasat KA-SAT network, the use of commercial constellations for tactical communications, reliance on privately operated satellite imagery for intelligence and anti-satellite weapons testing – has made this issue urgent. The research will reconstruct IHL principles applicable to dual-use objects (satellites in particular), assessing their interaction with the law of outer space, to develop a coherent analytical framework on the status of such assets in armed conflict. The project includes scientific events at UniTO and the publication of an article in a law journal.