Chapter

Law-of-war precautions : a cautionary note

Sean Watts

The impact of emerging technologies on the law of armed conflict

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019

P. 99-147

English

While the humanitarian benefits of precautions undertaken to protect civilians during attacks are readily apparent, the operational and legal costs of precautions in the attack are less acknowledged. This paper traces the nearly simultaneous growth of modern military information technology and law-of-war precautions. It showcases an array of benefits and costs of advances in military information technology and highlights under appreciated but persistent obstacles to situational awareness and decision making in military operations. It then traces the development by States, and the expansion and refinement by private commentators, of an international legal obligation to take humanitarian precautions in attacks. Finally, it identifies operational costs associated with precautions as free-standing international legal obligations. This paper advises, in light of enforcement competencies and informational realities, that States reexamine precautions and temper public expectations concerning States’ willingness and ability to undertake humanitarian precautions as they consider future development of the international law of war.

• Full text : restricted access (ICRC)

• The impact of emerging technologies on the law of armed conflict / [Ed. by] Eric Talbot Jensen and Ronald T.P. Alcala