Law and Ethics for Autonomous Weapon Systems: Why a Ban Won’t Work and How the Laws of War Can

Citation
Matthew C. Waxman & Kenneth Anderson, Law and Ethics for Autonomous Weapon Systems: Why a Ban Won’t Work and How the Laws of War Can (Apr. 13, 2013) (full-text).

Overview
Public debate is heating up over the future development of autonomous weapon systems. Some critics want to ban outright such systems. Yet an outright ban on autonomous weapon systems, even if it could be made effective, trades whatever risks autonomous weapon systems might pose in war for the real, if less visible, risk of failing to develop forms of automation that might make the use of force more precise and less harmful for civilians caught near it.

Grounded in a more realistic assessment of technology &mdash; acknowledging what is known and what is yet unknown &mdash; as well as the interests of the many international and domestic actors involved, this paper outlines a practical alternative: the gradual evolution of codes of conduct based on traditional legal and ethical principles governing weapons and warfare.