Chapter

Invisible soldiers : the perfidy implications of invisibility technology on battlefields of the future

Sephora Sultana and Hitoshi Nasu

The impact of emerging technologies on the law of armed conflict

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019

p. 307-324

English

This chapter first reviews the unique characteristics of invisibility technology and sets out the three criteria of the perfidy rule. It then examines how certain uses of invisibility technology might satisfy, or be used to circumvent, one or more of these criteria, which if cumulatively established would amount to a prohibited act of perfidy. In the course of this discussion, this chapter identifies the gray areas of the perfidy rule and raises questions about the rule’s adequacy in regulating the uses of invisibility technology on battlefields in light of various legal and practical challenges that arise therefrom. This chapter explores legal restrictions on the circumstances in which invisibility technology can be lawfully used and suggests certain considerations that should guide States in considering when to employ invisibility technology in armed conflict and in training military units to use it as a method of warfare.

• 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