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Autonomous Systems in a Military Context (Part 1): A Survey of the Legal Issues

Autonomous Systems in a Military Context (Part 1): A Survey of the Legal Issues

Tim McFarland, Jai Galliott
Copyright: © 2016 |Volume: 4 |Issue: 2 |Pages: 19
ISSN: 2166-7195|EISSN: 2166-7209|EISBN13: 9781466693777|DOI: 10.4018/IJRAT.2016070103
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MLA

McFarland, Tim, and Jai Galliott. "Autonomous Systems in a Military Context (Part 1): A Survey of the Legal Issues." IJRAT vol.4, no.2 2016: pp.34-52. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJRAT.2016070103

APA

McFarland, T. & Galliott, J. (2016). Autonomous Systems in a Military Context (Part 1): A Survey of the Legal Issues. International Journal of Robotics Applications and Technologies (IJRAT), 4(2), 34-52. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJRAT.2016070103

Chicago

McFarland, Tim, and Jai Galliott. "Autonomous Systems in a Military Context (Part 1): A Survey of the Legal Issues," International Journal of Robotics Applications and Technologies (IJRAT) 4, no.2: 34-52. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJRAT.2016070103

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Abstract

While some are reluctant to admit it, we are witnessing a fundamental shift in the way that advanced militaries conduct their core business of fighting. Increasingly autonomous ‘unmanned' systems are taking on the ‘dull, dirty and dangerous' roles in the military, leaving human war fighters to assume an oversight role or focus on what are often more cognitively demanding tasks. To this end, many military forces already hold unmanned systems that crawl, swim and fly, performing mine disposal, surveillance and more direct combat roles. Having found their way into the military force structure quite rapidly, especially in the United States, there has been extensive debate concerning the legality and ethicality of their use. These topics often converge, but what is legal will not necessarily be moral, and vice versa. The authors' contribution comes in clearly separating the two parts. In this paper, they provide a detailed survey of the legality of employing autonomous weapons systems in a military context.

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