Autonomous weapons systems and international law: a study on human-machine interactions in ethically and legally sensitive domains

Cover -- Chapter I Introduction -- 1. A (Brief) History of the Debate on Autonomous Weapons Systems -- 1.1. "Taking the Human Out of the Loop": The Issue of "Autonomy" in the Military Research and Policy Documents of the US Department of Defense -- 1.2. Questioning the "Dehumanization" of Warfare: From the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots to the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems -- 2. What Counts as "Autonomy" in Weapons Systems? The Case for a Functional Approach -- 2.1. An Overview of Existing and Foreseeable Autonomous Weapons Systems -- 2.2. Normative Implications of a Functional Approach to Autonomy in Weapons Systems -- 3. Mapping the Ethical and Legal Debate on Autonomous Weapons Systems -- 4. Research Goals and Structure of the Book -- 4.1. Disclaimer: What this Book is not About -- Chapter II A Legality "Test" for Autonomous Weapons Systems. The (In)compatibility of Autonomous Targeting with International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Setting Up the "Parameters" of the Test -- 2.1. The Law of Targeting -- 2.2. The Right to Life under International Human Rights Law -- 3. The First Prong of the Test: Distinction -- 3.1. The Principle of Distinction under International Humanitarian Law -- 3.1.1. The Definition of Civilians and the Problem of Direct Participation in Hostilities -- 3.1.2. The Definition of Military Objectives and the Problem of Dual-Use Objects -- 3.1.3. Other Protected Persons and Objects under International Humanitarian Law -- 3.2. Issues of Distinction under International Human Rights Law -- 3.3. Distinction and Autonomous Weapons Systems: The Problem of Situation Awareness -- 3.3.1. Perception of the Elements in the Environment -- 3.3.2. Comprehension of the Current Situation and Projection of Future Status.

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.