IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/glopol/v10y2019i3p370-375.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prohibiting Autonomous Weapons: Put Human Dignity First

Author

Listed:
  • Elvira Rosert
  • Frank Sauer

Abstract

In addition to its successful mobilization in stigmatization and norm‐setting processes on anti‐personnel landmines and cluster munitions, the principle of distinction as enshrined in International Humanitarian Law also figures prominently in the debate on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). Proponents of a ban on LAWS frame these as indiscriminate, that is, unable to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and thus as inherently unlawful. The flip side of this particular legal argument is, however, that LAWS become acceptable when considered capable of distinguishing between combatants and civilians. We thus argue, first, that this particular legal basis for the call for a ban on LAWS might be rendered obsolete by technological progress increasing discriminatory weapon capabilities. Second, we argue that the argument is normatively troubling as it suggests that, as long as civilians remain unharmed, attacking combatants with LAWS is acceptable. Consequently, we find that the legal principle of distinction is not the overall strongest argument to mobilize when trying to stigmatize and ban LAWS. A more fundamental, ethical argument within the debate about LAWS – and one less susceptible to ‘technological fixes’ – should be emphasized instead, namely that life and death decisions on the battlefield should always and in principle be made by humans only.

Suggested Citation

  • Elvira Rosert & Frank Sauer, 2019. "Prohibiting Autonomous Weapons: Put Human Dignity First," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 10(3), pages 370-375, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:10:y:2019:i:3:p:370-375
    DOI: 10.1111/1758-5899.12691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12691
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1758-5899.12691?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Édgar Solano González (Editor) & Manuela Losada Chavarro (Editor) & María Alejandra Osorio Alvis (Editor), 2022. "Aproximaciones, reflexiones y criticas preliminares sobre el derecho internacional humanitario. Tomo I," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1362.
    2. Lavazza, Andrea & Farina, Mirko, 2023. "Leveraging autonomous weapon systems: realism and humanitarianism in modern warfare," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:10:y:2019:i:3:p:370-375. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.