Legality of Use and Challenges of New Technologies in Warfare – the Use of Autonomous Weapons in Contemporary or Future Wars

Bibliographic Data

ID12416976
AuthorsAgnieszka Szpak (0000-0001-7601-1230, Nicolaus Copernicus University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume28
Issue1
Pages118-131
Publication date2019-11-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1062-7987 • E-ISSN: 1474-0575
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1062798719000310
OpenAlexW2985718414
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited7

Along with the rapid development and proliferation of autonomous robotic weapons, machines are beginning to replace people on battlefields. The use by the USA of Predators or Reapers and other unmanned aerial vehicles in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places in the world clearly signals a distancing of soldiers from their targets. In this article I concentrate on fully autonomous weapons. The theses of the article are as follows: the use of autonomous weapons would be contrary to the basic and fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, such as the principles of distinction and proportionality, and thus illegal. As such, their use would threaten the wellbeing, life and health of civilians and civilian populations. Their use would undermine the whole concept of the rules of war. Still, there are scholars who are of the opinion that prohibiting the use of autonomous weapons would make no sense at all and that the development of such weapons is inevitable and will take place gradually. Their use would be an expression of the technological dimension of international security. As this article will attempt to demonstrate, the drawbacks of the use of autonomous weapons are of such magnitude that they exclude the legality of such devices

Biological warfare · Computer security · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Distancing · International humanitarian law · International law · Law and economics · Nuclear weapon · Political science · Principle of legality · Proportionality (law · Sociology · Computer Science · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · International Law and Human Rights · Law · War, Ethics, and Justification

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