The Legal Requirement for Command and the Future of Autonomous Military Platforms

Technologically advanced armed forces extensively use platforms that can be controlled remotely and do not require an on-board crew. Increasingly, these systems have the capacity to function with some degree of autonomy. The use of autonomous functionality is not specifically prohibited or regulated by the law of armed conflict but the use of autonomous functions in military systems remains governed by the general principles and rules of international law. One existing international law concept may constrain the use of autonomous capabilities in military vessels and aircraft. This is the notion that military units must be “under the command” of an appropriate person. In this article, we set out to investigate whether the command requirement places limitations on autonomous devices. We use the methodology on treaty interpretation set out in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Our analysis shows that the ordinary meaning of the expression in question has been understood by militaries in a variety of ways and that the context in which the expression originally appears, and the object and purpose of the relevant instruments, do not provide conclusive answers. Accordingly, we also turn to the drafting history of the relevant provisions and examine subsequent State practice. This investigation supports the view that the command requirement does not necessitate direct oversight by a commander for every decision made, but rather requires asking whether the system is fulfilling the intent of the commander

Otsesuunatud tehisnärvivõrgud paketis R

Human brain is a complex and powerful system that is able to solve a wide variety of tasks. The aim of many scientists is to develop a computer simulation that mimics the brain functions and solves problems the way our brains do. Very simplified models of biological neural networks are artificial neural networks. There are two different types of artificial neural networks – feed forward neural networks and recurrent neural networks. This thesis gives an overview of feed-forward neural networks and their working principles. The thesis is divided into two main parts. The first part is the theory of feed-forward neural networks and the second part is a practical example of neural network with software R. The first part gives an overview of the artificial neuron and its history. Also different types of artificial neurons are introduced. The first part includes instructions of how feed-forward neural networks are composed and explains how they calculate the results. Separate chapter is devoted to training artificial neural networks. The chapter gives an overview of two main training algorithms – perceptron training algorithm and back-propagation algorithm. The first is designed to train perceptrons and the second is often used in training multi-layer feed-forward neural networks. The last topic explains how to construct feed-forward neural networks with software R. It includes a tutorial of how to build a neural network that calculates the square root. The tutorial will produce a neural network which takes a single input and produces a single output. Input is the number that we want square rooting and the output is the square root of the input

The Rule of Surrender in International Humanitarian Law

Under international humanitarian law it is prohibited to make the object of attack a person who has surrendered. This article explores the circumstances in which the act of surrender is effective under international humanitarian law and examines, in particular, how surrender can be achieved in practical terms during land warfare in the context of international and non-international armed conflict. First, the article situates surrender within its broader historical and theoretical setting, tracing its legal development as a rule of conventional and customary international humanitarian law and arguing that its crystallisation as a law of war derives from the lack of military necessity to directly target persons who have placed themselves outside the theatre of armed conflict, and that such conduct is unacceptable from a humanitarian perspective. Second, after a careful examination of state practice, the article proposes a three-stage test for determining whether persons have surrendered under international humanitarian law: (1) Have persons attempting to surrender engaged in a positive act which clearly reveals that they no longer intend to participate in hostilities? (2) Is it reasonable in the circumstances prevailing at the time for the opposing force to discern the offer of surrender? and (3) Have surrendered persons unconditionally submitted to the authority of their captor

The influence of teachings of publicists on the development of international law

This article considers the influence of teachings of publicists on the development of international law. The category of ‘teachings of publicists’ is not a homogeneous one. The article argues that it can be divided into: entities that have been empowered by States to conclude teachings, such as the International Law Commission; expert groups, such as the Institut de Droit International; and ‘ordinary’ publicists. The teachings of ordinary publicists are also of different types and include digests, treatises, textbooks, monographs, journal articles, and blog posts. Only by breaking down the category into its various types can the influence of the teaching of publicists on the development of international law be properly gauged. Even then, it can prove rather difficult to pin down the notion of ‘influence’. Standard assessments of influence focus on the extent to which teachings are cited by courts and tribunals, in particular by the International Court of Justice. However, that approach privileges the role of courts and tribunals in the development of international law and overlooks the role of other actors. As such, the present article offers a different assessment of influence. It identifies the actors that comprise the community of international lawyers and analyses the various interactions that take place between these actors and the teachings of publicists. It is through this interaction, of which citation is but part, that the influence of the teachings of publicists can properly be determined

Global Law as Intercontextuality and as Interlegality

Since the 1990s the effects of globalization on law and legal developments has been a central topic of scholarly debate. To date, the debate is however marked by three substantial deficiencies which this chapter seeks to remedy through a reconceptualization of global law as a law of inter-contextuality expressed through inter-legality and materialized through a particular body of legal norms which can be characterized as connectivity norms. The first deficiency is a historical and empirical one. Both critics as well as advocates of ‘non-state law’ share the assumption that ‘law beyond the state’ and related legal norms have gained in centrality when compared with previous historical times. While global law, including both public and private global governance law as well as regional occurrences such as EU law, has undergone profound transformations since the structural transformations which followed the de-colonialization processes of the mid-twentieth century, we do not have more global law relatively to other types of law today than in previous historical times. The second deficiency is a methodological one. The vast majority of scholarship on global law is either of an analytical nature, drawing on insights from philosophy, or empirically observing the existence of global law and the degree of compliance with global legal norms at a given moment in time. While both approaches bring something to the table they remain static approaches incapable of explaining and evaluating the transformation of global law over time. The third deficiency is a conceptual-theoretical one. In most instances, global law is understood as a unitary law producing singular legal norms with a planetary reach, or, alternatively, a radical pluralist perspective is adopted dismissing the existence of singular global norms. Both of these approaches however misapprehend the structural characteristics, function and societal effects of global law. Instead a third positon between unitary and radical pluralist perspectives can be adopted through an understanding of global law and its related legal norms as a de-centred kind of inter-contextual law characterised by inter-legality

Judging Inter-Legality

Peer reviewe

Law and honor: normative pluralism in the regulation of military conduct

In early 1991, two days after the Security Council-imposed deadline for Iraq to withdraw its forces from Kuwait had passed, a U.S.-led coalition began a massive air campaign against Saddam Hussein’s forces. The campaign had unprecedented intensity and its effects were devastating: Newsweek recounted that six weeks of precision bombing “reduced the Iraqi Army to a brainless, stumbling hulk.” The coalition followed up with a land campaign, which in less than seventy-two hours forced Iraqi troops to begin to withdraw from Kuwait City. During this retreat, coalition forces continued to inflict such heavy casualties on the Iraqi army that two northbound roads out of Kuwait attracted the collective nickname “Highway of Death.” According to William Polk, a notable American foreign policy expert, “nothing on that scale of massacre had occurred in the Middle East wars since Hulagu Khan took Baghdad [in 1258].” In a meeting at the White House on 27 February, having briefed President George H. W. Bush on the results of the military action, General Colin Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued against pressing the attack further. The president took the advice and declared a cease-fire