Autonomous weapon systems in the Convention on certain conventional weapons: Legal and ethical shadows of an autonomy, under human control?

Abstract

Autonomous Weapon Systems, also known as Killer Robots, are in the armed conflicts to stay. Since 2014, the State Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons debate on how to bring out an instrument for combat whose use raises serious legal challenges and important ethical issues. The impossibility of elaborating a common definition of this type of weapons has got the States repeatedly trapped in a vicious circle, preventing them from tackling legal and ethical issues of major humanitarian relevance. This study presents the technical keys of Autonomous weapons which originate the current blockage and delves into its consequences on legal and ethical issues and it proposes a set of comprehensive and clear actions that guarantee its use compliant with the international humanitarian law and subject to a continuous and meaningful control by the human beings.