Abstract
Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems have become iconic of contemporary conflicts. Their impact, however, is not limited to the transformation of warfare and the evolution of military technologies. Rather, it is necessary to scrutinize how drones and military robots will change the reference legal framework. More in particular legal scholars need to reflect further on the fate of International Humanitarian Law once warfare has taken a posthuman character.
Highlights
A ‘drone’ military revolutionIt is not my intention to reflect on the legality of the military use of drones
The question as to whether these weapons systems are consistent with humanitarian law is undoubtedly a subject of controversy: practices such as targeted killing, largely facilitated by drone technology, risk compromising a ius belli that is axiologically founded on the limitation of violence
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) – starting from the twentieth-century conventions and, even earlier, from the Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868 and the generous efforts of jurists belonging to the Institut de Droit International (Mannoni, 1999, pp. 141-198) –has devoted a great deal of attention to prisoner-of-war status, providing that the use of lethal force must be subordinate to a principle of necessity and that enemy combatants should be guaranteed the option of surrendering (Redse Johansen, 2019) 2
Summary
A ‘drone’ military revolutionIt is not my intention to reflect on the legality of the military use of drones. The question as to whether these weapons systems are consistent with humanitarian law is undoubtedly a subject of controversy: practices such as targeted killing, largely facilitated by drone technology, risk compromising a ius belli that is axiologically founded on the limitation of violence.
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