The Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Law of Armed Conflict

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact

Emerging technologies have always played an important role in armed conflict. From the crossbow to cyber capabilities, technology that could be weaponized to create an advantage over an adversary has inevitably found its way into military arsenals for use in armed conflict. The weaponization of emerging technologies, however, raises challenging legal issues with respect to the law of armed conflict. As States continue to develop and exploit new technologies, how will the law of armed conflict address the use of these technologies on the battlefield? Is existing law sufficient to regulate new technologies, such as cyber capabilities, autonomous weapons systems, and artificial intelligence? Have emerging technologies fundamentally altered the way we should understand concepts such as law-of-war precautions and the principle of distinction? How can we ensure compliance and accountability in light of technological advancement? This book explores these critical questions while highlighting the legal challenges—and opportunities—presented by the use of emerging technologies on the battlefield.

Emerging Technologies and the Principle of Distinction

2019 ◽  
pp. 211-234
Author(s):  
Michael W. Meier
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Autonomous Weapons ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
The Law ◽  
Aerial Systems

This chapter assesses the need to reconsider the principle of distinction in light of advancements in technology. Various emerging technologies, including unmanned aerial systems, lethal autonomous weapons, and cyber capabilities, have already begun to test the principle of distinction. How will these and other emerging technologies impact the implementation of the principle of distinction under the Law of Armed Conflict?

Leveraging Emerging Technology for LOAC Compliance

2019 ◽  
pp. 45-68
Author(s):  
Eric Talbot Jensen ◽  
Alan Hickey
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
International Community ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
The Law

Many of the current issues with the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) compliance are rooted in the limitation that parties to an armed conflict are only required to do what is “feasible” to protect civilians and civilian objects during hostilities. This would, of course, apply to the employment of emerging technologies. However, an understanding of feasibility that is enlightened by the use of emerging technologies will dramatically increase the effectiveness of steps which parties to an armed conflict can take to protect the civilian population. Further, the effectiveness and ease of application of these emerging technologies should be reflected in what the international community accepts as feasible actions by the parties to an armed conflict.

7 Weapons and the Environment

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boothby William H
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Environmental Modification ◽  
Additional Protocol ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
The Law ◽  
Substantive Law ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the treaty-based rules under the law of armed conflict with regard to the impact of warfare on the environment. It starts by tracing how such rules emerged noting the Lieber Code’s prohibition of the use of poison and of wanton devastation and the 1907 Hague prohibition of destruction and seizure of the enemy’s property, unless it is imperatively demanded by the necessities of war. Interpretation of these rules as applying to the environment is considered. The substantive law applying to the environment, namely articles 35(3) and 55 of Additional Protocol 1 and the UN Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques 1976 (ENMOD) are then each addressed in discrete sections of the chapter and the important differences between these provisions are noted.

The Developing Law of Weapons

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Haines
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Current State ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
The Future ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Law

This chapter discusses seven key issues. First, it discusses and defines the term ‘weapon’. Secondly, it explores the weapons law element of the law of armed conflict (LOAC), including how it relates to other existing bodies of law dealing with weapons. Thirdly, it gives an account of the development of the conventional law of weapons, because the bulk of current weapons law is contained in treaties that contain important principles underpinning weapons law and define its nature. Fourthly, it identifies these principles and comments on their importance. Fifthly, since conventional law has a vital relationship with customary law, the chapter offers some comment on the current state of the customary law of weapons. Sixthly, it returns to the issue of technology, in particular new technologies that represent significant challenges to existing law. Finally, some attempt is made to assess where the law might go in the future and what issues are likely to be on the agenda in the immediate term.

scholarly journals Introduction: Domestic Courts as Agents of Development of International Law

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTONIOS TZANAKOPOULOS ◽  
CHRISTIAN J. TAMS
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Formal Quality ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
Introductory Paper ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis introductory paper to the symposium hosted by the Leiden Journal of International Law, and edited by the authors, deals with the function of domestic courts as agents for the development of international law. The paper ‘sets the scene’ for the contributions to the symposium, which seek to trace the impact of domestic courts in the development of canonical areas of international law, such as jurisdiction, immunity, state responsibility, the law of international organizations/human rights, and the law of armed conflict/conduct of hostilities. It discusses the formal quality and actual influence of domestic-court decisions on the development of international-law, and introduces the concept of ‘agents’ of international-law development. This is the analytical perspective that the contributions to the symposium adopt.

New Technologies and the Interplay between Certainty and Reasonableness

2018 ◽  
pp. 317-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Blank
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Legal Regimes ◽  
The Law ◽  
Critical Components ◽  
Over Time

Underlying ongoing and intensive efforts to understand how the law of armed conflict (LOAC) does, could, and should apply to the use of new technologies is an equally comprehensive effort to understand precisely what these new weapons are and how they work. Many new technologies introduce unique questions for human understanding, often driven and exacerbated by the fact that the technology is out of sight or out of reach of human senses, making actual concrete understanding of how it works challenging and elusive. Effective legal analysis and guidance for the use of any weapon rests on an accurate understanding of how that weapon works. This uncertainty and quest for more determinative information about the nature of certain new technologies has the potential for unintended and possibly untoward effects on the very implementation and application of the law itself—in effect, it has the potential to change the law. As in many other legal regimes, critical components of legal analysis and interpretation in LOAC involve reasonableness: that is, whether the actions of a commander were reasonable in the circumstances prevailing at the time. In contrast, the need to understand how a new technology works and what it might do in a given situation, particularly with regard to autonomy, is not an inquiry resting on reasonableness, but rather on the desire for as much certainty as possible. This chapter examines how the development and use of new technologies in weapons may impact the balance between reasonableness and certainty in LOAC, in particular whether a quest for certainty will bleed over into the application and interpretation of the law and, over time, affect the development and understanding of the law itself.

The Principle of Proportionality in an Era of High Technology

2018 ◽  
pp. 261-288
Author(s):  
Jack Beard
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
The Law ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality ◽  
Weapons Systems

This chapter explores the application of a key principle of the law of armed conflict—proportionality—in the context of new and emerging weapons systems and methods of warfare. The relentless pursuit of new military technologies by States continues to yield expanding lists of technology-related issues for lawyers to consider in applying the law of armed conflict in complex battlespaces on land, on sea, in air, in space, and in cyberspace. Foremost among these issues is the challenge presented by the principle of proportionality, requiring military forces to refrain from causing excessive damage to civilians and civilian objects when attacking military objectives. New weapons systems in complex battlespaces continue to increasingly force lawyers and decision makers to revisit, re-evaluate, and struggle in new contexts with the “equitable balance between humanitarian requirements and the sad necessities of war.” Some technological developments may, however, also present opportunities for the principle of proportionality to achieve greater relevance to the conduct of armed conflicts and even contribute to improved compliance by States. To illustrate these challenges and opportunities, this chapter examines the application of the principle of proportionality in modern armed conflicts with respect to several critical yet still evolving military technologies: unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous weapons systems, cyber capabilities, and outer space technologies.

Assessing LOAC Compliance and Discourse as New Technologies Emerge

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-44
Author(s):  
Laurie R. Blank
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Legal Compliance ◽  
Cause And Effect ◽  
Law Of Armed Conflict ◽  
The Law ◽  
Necessary Connections

This chapter explores the consequences for effective discourse about the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) compliance of new technologies that intentionally or effectively mask the effects of an attack, the location or identify of the attackers, or even the very existence of an attack during armed conflict. The emergence of new weapons technologies that hinder or eliminate our ability to see the effects of attacks, to make the necessary connections between cause and effect, or to even identify the existence of an attack, may well erode the current trend towards the use of effects-driven, outcome-based analysis, which, although incorrect as a matter of law, nonetheless has captured attention. Examining how legal compliance can or would be assessed in such situations of new technologies is therefore useful to help enhance both implementation and analysis of the law. The chapter first frames the problem that new technologies may pose for assessing LOAC compliance, highlighting what may be, in essence, a new “effects problem.” These problems include situations where the effects of an attack are unclear or cannot be seen at all, where the connection between the weapon or attacker and the effects cannot be identified, and where a harm may occur but it is unclear or impossible to tell that there was an attack. The chapter then addresses the consequences of this potential new “effects problem,” examining the challenges of legal analysis in the absence of externally identifiable information about what happened, who suffered what effects, or who launched what type of weapon or attack. In addition, the chapter seeks to identify pressure points for LOAC analysis in the context of new technologies that place stressors on the traditional tools and touchstones of legal analysis.

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