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THE COMPATIBILITY OF AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS WITH THE PRINCIPLE OF DISTINCTION IN THE LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2020

Elliot Winter
Elliot Winter*
Affiliation:
Lecturer, Newcastle University Law School, [email protected].
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Abstract

The law of armed conflict requires ‘distinction’ between civilians and combatants and provides that only the latter may be targeted. However, for proper implementation, distinction requires advanced observation and recognition abilities as well as the capacity to exercise judgement based on situational awareness. While the observation and recognition abilities of machines may now surpass those of humans, the capacity of machines to exercise judgement remains significantly more limited than our own. Consequently, this article contends that the deployment of ‘autonomous weapons’ based on current levels of technological sophistication would be incompatible with distinction and that, as such, their use in conflict would be unlawful.

Keywords

public international lawlaw of armed conflictinternational humanitarian lawdistinctionautonomous weaponsmachine observationmachine recognitionmachine judgementartificial intelligence
Type
Articles
Information
International & Comparative Law Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 845 - 876
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press for the British Institute of International and Comparative Law

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Footnotes

A debt of gratitude is owed to Dr Conall Mallory and Dr Elena Katselli for their support.

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