Chapter

Drones and the dilemma of modern warfare

Samuel Issacharoff and Richard Pildes

Drone wars : transforming conflict, law, and policy

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2015

p. 388-420

English

In this chapter, the authors explore the shift from a status-based targeting to an individuation of enemy responsibility and its moral, legal and military consequences. This change is mostly due to the rise of terrorism and the consequent complexity of distinction, while human rights also started to take on more importance. This has led to more targeted killings and the criticized use of drones. According to the authors, drones in themselves do not raise legal issues, since they are a mere technological update for the targeted killing of individuals. Furthermore, they argue that their use is sometimes not only the most appropriate response but also the most humanitarian one, when the security of the civilian population is threatened and greater force would be used instead. They then proceed to analyze the effect of individuation on the government’s legal justifications for targeted killings. Individuation is considered necessary as a matter of morality, while citizenship should not matter in the decision. The authors also underline the importance of ex ante and ex post processes safeguarding the core principles of the conduct of hostilities, which will be developed automatically by institutions even without any form of formal judicial review. A formalized process of “lawlike” executive oversight, developed without the courts, has actually been used under President Obama. Finally, they raise the question of the future of warfare, and the coexistence of more traditional contexts of war with this individuated responsibility regime. [Summary by students at the International Criminal and Humanitarian Law Clinic, Laval University]

• Full text : restricted access (ICRC)

• Drone wars : transforming conflict, law, and policy / ed. by Peter L. Bergen and Daniel Rothenberg