7 - Accountability

Summary

This chapter assesses the impact of autonomous control of weapons on the operation of accountability regimes which seek to address serious violations of IHL. It begins with a general statement on accountability for the behaviour of autonomous weapons which refutes the suggestion that autonomy would create an ‘accountability gap’ which would rob the law of its normative power. The next section covers the law of State responsibility and finds that, while the operation of that law would not be greatly affected, it is unlikely to be a sufficient means of retraining violations of IHL. The law of individual criminal accountability is discussed via a case study of the effects of weapon autonomy on the material and mental elements of a war crime within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Some alternative accountability regimes based on tort law and administrative law are surveyed. The final section notes the value of weapons reviews as a prospective accountability measure and outlines the technical challenges facing those who would review complex autonomous machines.