This entry has been drafted by a member of the APILS team on the basis of publicly available materials. Its content has been neither peer reviewed nor checked for accuracy by any government official.
Legal basis
Canada signed Additional Protocol I on 12 December 1977 and ratified it on 20 November 1990.
Legal reviews are conducted under a Deputy Minister / Chief of the Defence Staff Directive for Article 36 Legal Review of Weapons, issued in July 2025. The Directive notes, inter alia, that:
Emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) are now challenging how traditional AP I Article 36 legal reviews are conducted. DND/CAF is therefore modernizing the processes by which it reviews weapons to ensure that our forces can bring to bear cutting edge technologies in operationally relevant timeframes while respecting Canada’s applicable international legal obligations.
Review authority
Legal reviews of new weapons, means, and methods of warfare are undertaken by military legal advisors within the Operational and International Law Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General, Department of National Defence.
Standard of review
The purpose of the legal review is to determine whether a weapon can be employed in compliance with Canada’s legal obligations. The review considers whether:
- the possession or employment of the weapon could violate a rule of conventional or customary international law applicable to Canada;
- the weapon is of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering;
- the weapon is capable of being used discriminately;
- the weapon is intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term, and severe damage to the natural environment; and
- there are any foreseeable developments in the law of armed conflict that may affect the future legality of the weapon.
With respect to autonomous weapon systems, the legal review further assesses whether the system is capable of being employed in compliance with the law of targeting.
Conduct of review
Legal reviews are conducted during the study, development, acquisition, or adoption of a new weapon into the Canadian Armed Forces, or when an in-service weapon undergoes modification. Requests for legal review are initiated by the Ammunition Safety and Suitability Board.
The Directive provides that:
DND/CAF will conduct a review of its internal procedures to identify and insert AP I Article 36 legal reviews at the earliest practicable stages by which weapons are studied, developed, acquired, and adopted in order to ensure Canada’s continued ability to meet its applicable international legal obligations.”
The Canadian Forces Code of Conduct (Rule 3) addresses the lawful use of weapons and the prohibition of certain weapon modifications. The Soldier’s Handbook on the Law of Armed Conflict Applicable to Land Warfare (ch 6, para 9) further provides that:
In normal circumstances, commanders should seek support from a LEGAD before authorizing the use of captured, improvised or altered weapons and ammunition. However, subject to orders, commanders may temporarily authorize the use of captured, improvised or altered weapons and ammunition without a formal legal review if urgent battlefield circumstances so require. They may only do so if satisfied that such use would comply with LOAC as set out in this chapter. For example, a commander would be required to deny authorization to use a weapon that has been altered for the purpose of increasing suffering.
Review outcome
The legal review informs decision makers on the potential legal risks, challenges, and concerns regarding the use of a particular means or method of warfare, and can determine whether — and in what circumstances — a certain capability could lawfully be deployed.
References
Key documents
- Deputy Minister / Chief of the Defence Staff
Directive for Article 36 Legal Review of Weapons
(July 2025) - Department of National Defence
Project Approval Directive
(2015) s B.14.2.6 - Deputy Minister / Chief of the Defence Staff
Ammunition and Explosives = Munitions et explosifs
DAOD 3002-0 (24 August 2016) - Office of the Judge Advocate General
Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels
B-GJ-005-104/FP-021 (National Defence, 13 August 2001) ¶ 530 - Office of the Judge Advocate General
The Soldier’s Handbook on the Law of Armed Conflict Applicable to Land Warfare
(National Defence, September 2025) chapter 6
Further references
- Blaise Cathcart, “Weapons reviews: current and future challenges” in Baldwin De Vidts and Gian Luca Beruto (eds), Weapons and the International Rule of Law: 39th Round Table on Current Issues of International Humanitarian Law (Sanremo, 8th–10th September 2016) (Franco Angeli, 2017) 85–92
- Damian Copeland and Rain Liivoja, Progressing the Legal Review of Autonomous Weapon Systems: Report of an Expert Meeting (Geneva, 10–11 March 2025) (Asia-Pacific Institute for Law and Security, September 2025) 2.
