Autonomous Weapons Systems & the Role of Law

The development of autonomous weapons systems continues unabated. In its broadest sense, these are systems that can operate outside of direct human control and can independently dispense lethal force in the battlespace based on internal programming. While not yet operational, it seems only a matter of time before such weapons can be deployed.

While this weapon system, like all others, must comply with the law of armed conflict there seems something troubling about this prospect. There is growing advocacy asserting that these weapons can comply with the law, and even that they may deliver more humanitarian outcomes in their dispensation of violence. Such advocacy assumes much about the normativity of the law. While moral and/or ethical commitments are not overtly contained within the black letter rules, such considerations are understood to guide effective judgment when making targeting decisions in armed conflict. It seems an unarticulated assumption within the vast body of International Humanitarian Law that qualities of emotion and cognition do and should guide decisions about violence in armed conflict and should temper such violence. Such human qualities are naturally elusive in the context of autonomous systems, hence making ‘compliance’ with the law problematic.

This presentation will canvass these issues and will interrogate how optimal judgment should be exercised in the battlespace by using the development of autonomous weapons systems as a useful case study.