Chapter

Autonomous weapons systems and international criminal law

Stuart Casey-Maslen

Drones and other unmanned weapons systems under international law

Leiden ; Boston : Brill Nijhoff, 2018

p. 217-249

English

This chapter discusses the extent to which use of armed drones and fully autonomous weapons systems may amount to an international crime, particularly a war crime or the crime of aggression. A war crime is a serious violation of the law of armed conflict that attracts individual criminal responsibility. An act of aggression is defined in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as the use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of another state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations. Depending on the alleged crime, international criminal law either authorises states, or imposes on them an obligation, to prosecute alleged international criminals and to punish the convicted.

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