The Legality and Accountability of Autonomous Weapon Systems

By adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the legality of the use of autonomous weapons systems under international law. It examines different arguments presented by States, roboticists and scholars to demonstrate the challenges such systems will create for the laws of war. This study examines how technology of warfare seeks to increase the dissociation of risk and communication between weapons and their human operators. Furthermore, it explains how algorithms might give rise to 'errors' on the battlefield that cannot be directly attributed to human operators. Against this backdrop, Dr Seixas-Nunes examines three distinct legal frameworks: the distinction between the legality of weapons and the laws of targeting; different mechanisms of individual accountability and the importance of recovering the category of 'dolus eventualis' for programmers and technicians and, finally, State responsibility for violations of the laws of war caused by weapons' software errors.

• Provides a rigorous analysis of the varying positions taken by States, non-governmental organisations and scholars regarding the topic of autonomous weapons
• Puts forward a multi-disciplinary analysis of the topic, drawing on law, philosophy and artificial intelligence in an accessible and engaging way
• Offers a new analysis of the rules of accountability for the deployment of autonomous weapons on the battlefield, giving a comprehensive analysis of the arguments against and in favour of autonomous weapons systems, offering an original approach for international responsibility for the deployment of such technology