The Roboticization of Warfare with Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS): Mandate of Humanity or Threat to It 40 Houston Journal of International Law 2017-2018

40 Hous. J. Int'l L. 461 (2017-2018 )
The Roboticization of Warfare with Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS): Mandate of Humanity or Threat to It

handle is hein.journals/hujil40 and id is 485 raw text is:

THE ROBOTICIZATION OF WARFARE WITH
LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPON
SYSTEMS (LAWS): MANDATE OF
HUMANITY OR THREAT TO IT?

Nicholas W. Mull, Esq.*

I. INTRODUCTION. ........................... ....... 462

II BACKGROUND .................................. 471
A. Historical Development of Weapons Law.................. 471
B. LAWS Defined and Contemporary Examples of
Autonomy in Weapon Systems .................. 475
1. Definition of LAWS and Taxonomy of
Autonomy ....................... ........ 475
2. Current Weapon Systems with Autonomous
Features ........................... ..... 484
C. Contemporary Efforts in the LAWS Debate. ............. 487

III. ANALYSIS ......................................... 491

* The author is a former Major and Judge Advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps practicing
public international law and national security law. He served for sixteen years; more than
twelve years of which on active duty from 2004-2016, and he deployed twice in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom between 2005-2007. He is a graduate of The Marine Corps
University's Expeditionary Warfare School and Command & Staff College in addition to
his legal training. His most recent assignment was as the Head of the Operational Law
Department, International & Operational Law Division, Office of the Judge Advocate
General of the Navy, Pentagon, where he served as a member of the Department of
Defense Law of War Working Group and the Naval Arms Control Review Board and was
a legal advisor on matters of the law of war and international law generally. One of his
primary missions was to conduct legal reviews of all new weapons and weapon systems
for the Department of the Navy. J.D., Wayne State University Law School, Order of the
Coif; LLM, Columbia Law School, James Kent Scholar. DISCLAIMER: any opinions or
analysis are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of viewpoints of the
Department of Defense or Department of the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.

461

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