Skip to main content

Designing International Humanitarian Law into Military Autonomous Devices

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Coordination, Organizations, Institutions, Norms, and Ethics for Governance of Multi-Agent Systems XV (COINE 2022)

Abstract

This position paper presents a discussion on the problem of implementing the rules of International Humanitarian Law in AI-driven military autonomous devices. We introduce a structure of a hybrid data- and knowledge-driven computational framework of a hypothetical targeting system built from the ground up with IHL compliance in mind. We provide a model and a discussion of necessary legal tests and variables.

Tomasz Zurek received funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Platform for Responsible Innovation (NWO-MVI) as part of the DILEMA Project on Designing International Law and Ethics into Military Artificial Intelligence.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    The following overview is drawn from [13, 15, 32, 35].

  2. 2.

    A similar approach to the modeling of proportionality rule can be found in [52].

References

  1. Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field (adopted 12 August 1949, entered into force 21 October 1950) 75 UNTS 31

    Google Scholar 

  2. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (adopted 8 June 1977, entered into force 7 December 1978) 1125 UNTS 3 (1977)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Anderson, K., Waxman, M.C.: Law and ethics for autonomous weapon systems: why a ban won’t work and how the laws of war can (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Boothby, W.H.: Regulating new weapon technologies. In: Boothby, W.H. (ed.) New Technologies and the Law of War and Peace, pp. 16–42. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Boulanin, V.: Mapping the development of autonomy in weapon systems: a primer on autonomy. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Stockholm (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Canada: Opening Statement by Canada at Second Meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), 9–13 April 2018. Technical report (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chavannes, E., Arkhipov-Goyal, A.: Towards Responsible Autonomy: The Ethics of Robotic and Autonomous Systems in a Military Context. The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, The Hague (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Corn, G.S.: War, law, and the oft overlooked value of process as a precautionary measure. Pepperdine Law Rev. 42, 419–466 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Crootof, R.: The killer robots are here: legal and policy implications. Cardozo Law Rev. 36, 1837–1915 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Curtis E. Lemay Center: Air Force Doctrine Publication 3–60 - Targeting (2019). https://www.doctrine.af.mil/Doctrine-Publications/AFDP-3-60-Targeting

  11. Dahlmann, A., Dickow, M.: Preventive regulation of autonomous weapon systems. Technical report. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik Research Paper 2019/RP 03, Berlin (2019). https://doi.org/10.18449/2019RP03

  12. Defense Innovation Board: AI principles: recommendations on the ethical use of artificial intelligence by the department of defense defense innovation board. Technical report, Department of Defense (2019). https://media.defense.gov/2019/Oct/31/2002204458/-1/-1/0/DIB_AI_PRINCIPLES_PRIMARY_DOCUMENT.PDF

  13. Department of the Army: The Operations Process (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Ducheine, P., Gill, T.: From cyber operations to effects: some targeting issues. Militair Rechtelijk Tijdschrift 111(3), 37–41 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ekelhof, M.: Human control in the targeting process. In: Autonomous Weapon Systems: Implications of Increasing Autonomy in the Critical Functions of Weapons, pp. 53–56. ICRC, Versoix (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Eklund, A.M.: Meaningful Human Control of Autonomous Weapon Systems: Definitions and Key Elements in the Light of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law. Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut, Stockholm (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Geiß, R., Lahmann, H.: Autonomous weapons systems: a paradigm shift for the law of armed conflict? In: Ohlin, J.D. (ed.) Research Handbook on Remote Warfare, pp. 371–404. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham (2017)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS): Report of the 2019 session of the Group of Governmental Experts on Emerging Technologies in the Area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, UN document CCW/GGE.1/2019/3, 25 September 2019. Technical report, Geneva (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Henckaerts, J.M., Doswald-Beck, L.: Customary International Humanitarian Law, Volume I - Rules. ICRC, Geneva (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Holland Michel, A.: The black box, unlocked: predictability and understandability in Military AI. Technical report, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2020. https://doi.org/10.37559/SecTec/20/AI1. https://unidir.org/black-box-unlocked

  21. House of Lords: Select committee on artificial intelligence, report of session 2017–19, AI in the UK: Ready, willing, and able? Technical report, HL Paper 100, 16 April 2018 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Huffman, W.B.: Margin of error: potential pitfalls of the ruling in the prosecutor v. Ante Gotovina. Military Law Rev. 211, 1–56 (2012). https://hdl.handle.net/10601/2104

  23. International Committee of the Red Cross: A Guide to the Legal Review of New Weapons, Means and Methods of Warfare: Measures to Implement Article 36 of Additional Protocol I of 1977. ICRC, Geneva (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  24. International Committee of the Red Cross: Report of the ICRC Expert Meeting on Autonomous weapon systems: technical, military, legal and humanitarian aspects, 26–28 March 2014, Geneva. Technical report (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  25. International Court of Justice: Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  26. International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Technical report (2001). https://www.icty.org/en/press/final-report-prosecutor-committee-established-review-nato-bombing-campaign-against-federal

  27. Kwik, J., Van Engers, T.: Algorithmic fog of war: when lack of transparency violates the law of armed conflict. J. Future Robot Life, 1–24 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3233/FRL-200019

  28. Meier, M.W.: Lethal autonomous weapons systems. In: Complex Battlespaces, pp. 289–316. Oxford University Press, Oxford, January 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190915360.003.0010

  29. Meyer-Vitali, A., et al.: Hybrid AI white paper. Technical report, TNO (2019). tNO 2019 R11941

    Google Scholar 

  30. Ministère des Armées (France): L’intelligence artificielle au service de la défense. Technical report, Ministère des Armées, Paris (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Neuman, N.: Applying the rule of proportionality: force protection and cumulative assessment in international law and morality. Yearb. Int. Hum. Law 7, 79–112 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1389135904000790

  32. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation: Allied Joint Doctrine for Joint Targeting, Edition A Version 1 (April 2016) AJP-3.9 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering: Technical Assessment: Autonomy. US Department of Defense, Washington, D.C. (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Roff, H.M.: Meaningful human control or appropriate human judgment? The necessary limits on autonomous weapons (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Roorda, M.: NATO’s targeting process: ensuring human control over (and lawful use of) ‘autonomous’ weapons. In: Williams, A.P., Scharre, P.D. (eds.) Autonomous Systems: Issues for Defence Policymakers, pp. 152–168. NATO, The Hague (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Russell, S.J., Norvig, P.: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 3rd edn. Pearson, New Jersey (2010)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  37. Sandoz, Y., Swinarski, C., Zimmerman, B.: Commentary on the Additional Protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949. Martinus Nijhoff (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Scharre, P., Horowitz, M.C.: An introduction to autonomy in weapon systems. Technical report, Center for a New American Security (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Scharre, P.D.: The opportunity and challenge of autonomous systems. In: Williams, A.P., Scharre, P.D. (eds.) Autonomous Systems: Issues for Defence Policymakers, pp. 3–26. NATO, The Hague (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Schmitt, M.N., Garraway, C.H., Dinstein, Y.: The Manual on the Law of Non-international Armed Conflict, With Commentary. International Institute of Humanitarian Law, San Remo (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Schuller, A.: At the crossroads of control: the intersection of artificial intelligence in autonomous weapon systems with international humanitarian law. Harv. Natl. Secur. J. 8, 379 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Sharkey, N.E.: Towards a Principle for the Human Supervisory Control of Robot Weapons. Politica Società 3, 305 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Szpak, A.: Legality of use and challenges of new technologies in warfare - the use of autonomous weapons in contemporary or future wars. Eur. Rev. 28(1), 118–131 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798719000310

  44. Thorne, J.G.: Warriors and war algorithms: leveraging artificial intelligence to enable ethical targeting. Technical report, Naval War College (2020). https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1104171

  45. Thurnher, J.S.: Examining autonomous weapon systems from a law of armed conflict perspective. In: Nasu, H., McLaughlin, R. (eds.) New Technologies and the Law of Armed Conflict, pp. 213–228. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Thurnher, J.S.: Feasible precautions in attack and autonomous weapons. In: Heintschel von Heinegg, W., Frau, R., Singer, T. (eds.) Dehumanization of Warfare, pp. 99–117. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67266-3_6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  47. UK Ministry of Defence: The UK approach to unmanned aircraft systems: joint doctrine note 2/11. Technical report, United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  48. United States Office of General Counsel of the Department of Defense: Law of War Manual, Updated December 2016. Technical report, Department of Defense (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  49. U.S. Air Force Office of the Chief Scientist: Autonomous horizons: system autonomy in the air force a path to the future, volume I: human-autonomy teaming. Technical Report, AF/ST TR 15–01 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Wallace, D.: Cyber weapon reviews under international humanitarian law: a critical analysis, Tallinn paper no 11. Technical report (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Wilson, C.: Artificial intelligence and warfare. In: Martellini, M., Trapp, R. (eds.) 21st Century Prometheus, pp. 125–140. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28285-1_7

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  52. Zurek, T., Woodcock, T., Pacholska, M., van Engers, T.: Computational modelling of the proportionality analysis under international humanitarian law for military decision-support systems, January 2022. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4008946

  53. Zurek, T.: Goals, values, and reasoning. Expert Syst. Appl. 71, 442–456 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2016.11.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tomasz Zurek .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Kwik, J., Zurek, T., van Engers, T. (2022). Designing International Humanitarian Law into Military Autonomous Devices. In: Ajmeri, N., Morris Martin, A., Savarimuthu, B.T.R. (eds) Coordination, Organizations, Institutions, Norms, and Ethics for Governance of Multi-Agent Systems XV. COINE 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13549. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20845-4_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20845-4_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-20844-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-20845-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics