Volume 16 Issue 2 (2020)
Killer Robots or Soldiers of the Future: Legal Issues and India’s Role in the Lethal Autonomous Weapons Debate
Sarvjeet Singh and Sharngan Aravindakshan
This paper traces the politico-legal discussions surrounding autonomous weapons and unpacks the major legal issues plaguing scholarly and governmental debates around Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS). The authors first lay out a typology of autonomy to better understand issues and concerns with such weapons systems. The article then examines the broad legal framework with which these weapons will be required to comply and within whose boundaries these weapons will be required to be operated. The authors proceed to trace major States’ views on LAWS under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons. Finally, the authors examine Indian efforts towards increasing autonomy in defence technology and assess how best autonomous weaponry can be deployed in the Indian scenario.
Author
Sarvjeet Singh is the Project Manager and Research Fellow at the Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University Delhi. Sharngan Aravindakshan is a lawyer and Programme Officer at the Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University Delhi