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Recent advances in robotics and AI have paved the way to robots autonomously performing a wide variety of tasks in ethically and legally sensitive domains. Among them, a prominent place is occupied by robots endowed with the ability to deliver destructive force without human intervention, a.k.a. Autonomous Weapons Systems (or AWS), whose legality under international law is currently at the center of a heated academic and diplomatic debate. The AWS debate provides a uniquely representative sample of the (potentially) disruptive impact of new technologies on norms and principles of international law, in that it touches on key questions of international humanitarian law, international human rights law, international criminal law, and State responsibility. Against this backdrop, this book's primary aim is to explore the international legal implications of autonomy in weapons systems, by inquiring what existing international law has to say in this respect, to what extent the persisting validity of its principles and categories is challenged, and what could be a way forward for future international regulation on the matter. From a broader perspective, the research carried out on the issue of the legality of AWS under international law aspires to offer some more general insights on the normative aspects of the shared control relationship between human decision-makers and artificial agents.

Jüngste Fortschritte in Robotik und KI machen es möglich, Roboter auch mit ethisch und rechtlich sensiblen Aufgaben zu betrauen. Besonders umstritten ist der Einsatz so genannter autonomer Waffensysteme (AWS), die eigenständig Entscheidungen über Leben und Tod von 'Zielpersonen' treffen. Damit berühren sie zentrale Grundlagen des humanitären Völkerrechts, der internationalen Menschenrechte, des internationalen Strafrechts sowie der staatlichen Verantwortung. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht das Buch die Legalität und die völkerrechtlichen Folgen des Einsatzes autonomer Waffensysteme. Es zeigt Wege für künftige internationale Regelungen auf und skizziert das Konzept einer 'geteilten Verantwortung' zwischen menschlichen Entscheidungsträgern und intelligenten Systemen. Daniele Amoroso ist Professor für Völkerrecht an der Universität Cagliari und Mitglied des Internationalen Komitees für die Kontrolle von Roboterwaffen (ICRAC).

This chapter will examine the extent to which International Human Rights Law (IHRL) regulates the activities of foreign fighters. Its starting point is that IHRL does not address foreign fighters as individual natural persons, but binds them in their quality as members of one of the parties to an internal strife. Their breaches of IHRL, therefore, may trigger the international responsibility of the entity which they are part of. On this assumption, the present investigation will aim at providing an answer to the following issues: (i) to what extent IHRL binds the parties to an internal conflict; (ii) under which conditions human rights violations committed by foreign fighters are attributable to them; and (iii) what legal consequences ensue from such violations. At variance with the general approach adopted in this volume, this chapter will focus solely on foreign fighters siding with armed opposition groups, since in relation to foreign elements fighting with governmental forces these issues are relatively uncontroversial and do not need further discussion. The analysis will be carried out by taking as case studies the internal conflicts ongoing in Syria and Iraq.