idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
11/15/2023 - 11/15/2023 | Hamburg
Autonomous weapons systems (AWS) – so-called “killer robots” – are no longer the stuff of science fiction. In Libya, Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh, and most recently Ukraine, states have used weapons in combat that have an autonomous mode. And it is only a matter of time before AWS become ubiquitous on the battlefield.
As AWS have proliferated, so have calls to prohibit their use. Some objections are deontological, such as the contention that allowing machines to kill is inconsistent with human dignity. And still others are consequentialist, such as the claim that using AWS will lead to unnecessary civilian casualties because only human soldiers are capable of complying with international humanitarian law (IHL).
Despite their differences, all of these critiques emphasise the need for war to remain an exclusively human endeavour. The “human” they imagine, however, is an idealised one – a subject who is rational, self-determining, and capable of self-control. That conception of human subjectivity is contradicted by decades of research into how humans actually make decisions, particularly in dangerous and stressful situations such as armed conflict. As this lecture will show, once we accept humans as they are, not how critics imagine them to be, the case against AWS collapses: war fought with killer robots is likely to be far more “human” than war fought solely by human soldiers.
Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Kevin Jon Heller is Professor of International Law and Security at the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for Military Studies. He currently serves as a Special Adviser to the ICC Prosecutor and is an Academic Member of Doughty Street Chambers in London. His books include The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law (OUP, 2011) and four co-edited volumes: The Handbook of Comparative Criminal Law (Stanford, 2010), The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials (OUP, 2013), the Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law (OUP, 2018), and Contingency in International Law: On the Possibility of Different Legal Histories (OUP, 2021). He has been a member of the international-law blog Opinio Jurisfor more than 17 years.
Chair & Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar (GIGA)
Information on participating / attending:
Registration required. The participation is free of charge.
Date:
11/15/2023 13:00 - 11/15/2023 14:30
Registration deadline:
11/15/2023
Event venue:
Online Event
Hamburg
Hamburg
Germany
Target group:
Scientists and scholars, all interested persons
Email address:
Relevance:
international
Subject areas:
Politics
Types of events:
Presentation / colloquium / lecture
Entry:
10/19/2023
Sender/author:
Verena Schweiger
Department:
Fachabteilung Kommunikation
Event is free:
yes
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event75492
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