SYSTEMS OF LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS (LAWS). REFLECTIONS FOR A DEBATE

Abstract

Harmonizing criteria on the legitimacy of the use of intelligent weapons systems in military operations would be “a priori” a debatable exercise, mainly because of the side-effects that such technological gadgets can have, even if under the control of operators or controllers and comply with the rules of international humanitarian law; however, if that same instrument possesses the “autonomous” quality, it would become an element known as the “Lethal Autonomous Weapon System” (LAWS), possessing it in a superlative dimension that will require legal and ethical precisions. Consequently, this work aims to explore and describe, from international conceptualization, the possibility of setting limits on the aforementioned autonomy and from that notion, to discuss the interest of developing binding regulatory instruments to rule this technology in military operations.