Autonomous weapon systems that decide whom to kill. How international humanitarian law and international human rights law regulate the development and use of offensive autonomous weapon systems during international armed conflicts

Abstract

The thesis examines the following questions: 1) How autonomous weapon systems (AWS) should be defined and whether there are any legal restraints on the technology, hereunder the notion “meaningful human control.” 2) How international human rights law (IHRL) may apply during an international armed conflict (IAC). 3) Whether IHRL may apply extraterritorially through the use of AWS, with a special emphasis on the notion of personal jurisdiction. 4) How the right to life and the prohibition against inhuman or degrading treatment may limit the adversaries’ conduct during hostilities, with a special emphasis on the ECHR Article 2 and only reference to the ICCPR Article 6. 5) Whether international humanitarian law deems AWS illegal per se. 6) Whether the use of AWS may pose special challenges to the law of targeting, with a special emphasis on the obligation to take precautions in attacks and the fundamental principles of IHL. 7) How states ought to conduct weapon reviews in accordance with AP I Article 36.