Abstract

Inspired by Koskenniemi’s work, From Apology to Utopia, this paper attempts to engage in the discussion on the legality of autonomous weapons by showing the conflicting arguments presented by advocates of each side of the debate. The paper does not aim at finding the answer to whether autonomous weapons can be lawfully deployed or not, but rather its main interest is to highlight the indeterminacy within international law that allows both advocates and opponents of banning autonomous weapons to hold to their arguments and legally defend them on basis of the same legal rules used by their adversaries to refute their arguments and to build conflicting arguments. The paper will also be investigating the efforts made to define autonomous weapons and how definitions play an important role in giving international law this indeterminate character.

School

School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

Department

Law Department

Degree Name

LLM in International and Comparative Law

Graduation Date

Winter 1-31-2023

Submission Date

1-24-2023

First Advisor

Thomas Skouteris

Committee Member 1

Hany Sayed

Committee Member 2

Jason Beckett

Extent

57 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Not necessary for this item

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