Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems And The Principle Of Distinction

The legality of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems(hereinafter referred to as LAWS)is recently a controversial issue in international humanitarian law.Unlike traditional weapons,LAWS combines intelligence,autonomy and lethality to select and attack targets without human involvement.The emergence of lethal autonomous weapon systems has brought many challenges to international humanitarian law,among which the legality of lethal autonomous weapon systems is the most controversial.And whether LAWS can abide by the principle of distinction is the key to its legality.Countries have been developing and trying to deploy lethal autonomous weapon systems,so it is necessary to step up the negotiation and conclusion of international law regulations to prevent the possible serious consequences of non-regulation on LAWS.There are many research achievements on the legality of lethal autonomous weapon systems,but most of them just point out the possible legal risks of the system and the possibility of violating the principle of distinction.At present,the micro-level of the legality of LAWS is lacking,but it is necessary.LAWS shall follow the principle of distinction as priority,and cannot be deployed on existing indiscriminate weapons as required by the principle of distinction.Moreover,LAWS themselves have the basis to fulfill the obligation of the principle of distinction.It is not an indiscriminate weapon,can be used separately,and has an operational advantage under certain conditions.Some characteristics of LAWS has brought some problems to adhere to the principle of distinction: such as fuzzy definition of concepts “military targets”,“directly participate in combat” and “civilian”,and countries also does not have uniform standard,so for LAWS is even difficult.So those concepts need further clear.In turn,LAWS put forward higher requirements on the discrimination principle.The inherent precision of LAWS made the discrimination principle more strictly on interpreting “indiscriminate attacks”,narrow the scope of collateral damage,and appropriately change the discrimination standard.Otherwise,LAWS would also easily break the law.LAWS’s algorithm has some obstacles when it meets the requirements of the discrimination principle,such as the algorithm bias that affects the fairness of the discrimination,the difficulty of human discretion to re-identify targets,then make determination of military necessity.On the issue of how to regulate the lethal autonomous weapon system,it is not advisable to ban the lethal autonomous weapon system.LAWS has an advantage over humans in terms of distinction,and can be used directly in some situations.It is necessary to establish a dialogue mechanism for jurists,artificial intelligence experts,scholars and weapons-scientists to jointly discuss and grasp the development direction of LAWS and make it develop in a direction beneficial to human beings.