Humanity in War? The Importance of Meaningful Human Control for the Regulation of Autonomous Weapons Systems

There is increasing discussion about the need to regulate autonomous weapons systems that are currently being developed. The article begins by outlining the reasons why such regulation is necessary: the (lack of) compliance with international humanitarian law, and the issue of individual criminal responsibility. Focusing on the latter, the article examines the question of how fair individual criminal accountability can be guaranteed when autonomous weapons systems are increasingly used. Due to their ever-greater divergence from conventional weapons (systems), it is necessary to realign or reconsider the understanding of individual responsibility under criminal law. The authors discuss the understanding on which two selected legal texts of international humanitarian law are based: the German Code of Crimes Against International Law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. They show that the requirement for effective (human) control is inherent in the law. A favored regulatory approach to ensuring that this human control exists is “meaningful human control”. It is found that meaningful human control is a consequence of the attempt to preserve the concept of individual accountability and adapt it to new circumstances. Finally, the authors look at some initial requirements for maintaining this control.