With respect to possible approaches to the implementation of the weapons review process, we would like to share our respective national format.
In order to foster the implementation of the obligation under Article 36 AP I, Germany has established a Steering Group “Review of new Weapons and Methods of Warfare” within the German Federal Ministry of Defence. Under the leadership of the Directorate-General for Legal Affairs’ International and Operational Law Branch representatives of all competent Directorates-General of the MoD are convened in the Steering Group. Hereby we are enabled to synergize the in-house knowledge of all experts, ranging from political to technical or operational expertise.
The representatives of the Directorates-General within the Steering Group are primarily points of contact for the Directorate-General for Legal Affairs through whom further subject matter expertise for a weapons review can be introduced. They may also bring in projects for review on behalf of their Directorate-General. Competence and responsibility for the legal review under Article 36 AP I lies with the Directorate-General for Legal Affairs of the MoD. Legal criterion for the review is primarily the International Humanitarian Law as applicable to Germany.
The introduction of a new weapon, weapon system or method of warfare will — in view of the relevant legal requirements — be ultimately dependent upon the existence of a sufficiently broad range of meaningful operational scenarios for its use in compliance with international law. In the context of “meaningful operational scenarios”, we would like to emphasize from a military point of view that a lethal autonomous weapon system without any human control is not in line with our command and control requirements.
The depicted review process regularly requires recourse to subject matter expertise of subordinate levels of command and also from outside the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces, for example regarding medical and further impact analysis as well as operational knowledge. The representation of all competent Directorates-General in the Steering Group should also increase awareness within the MoD for the requirements and criteria of the legal review. The establishment of the Steering Group hereby also enhances an early initiation of the review process.
Possible concerns or potential needs for restricting the use of a weapon emerging in the Article-36-review may have considerable repercussions as to the appropriateness of the weapon’s overall introduction.
In this respect, Article-36-reviews are sought to be initiated at the earliest possible stage of a new-weapons-project. Dependent upon the complexity of the subject, the review process might be phased in accordance with respective development steps.
We consider that our Steering Group facilitates the legal review process for the Directorate-General for Legal Affairs compared to ad-hoc basis reviews without a respective infrastructure. Obviously, other States may have differing methods of examination in the Art. 36 review process. We believe that international trust and confidence building could be furthered by transparency regarding the review mechanism. A first step could be to make public the national procedures. The CCW could provide the adequate framework.
Statement on transparency by Germany (17 April 2015)
