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
Israel is not a party to Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, and as such is not bound by Article 36 of that Protocol. However, Israel has expressed the view that conducting legal reviews of new weapons is the best instrument for a State to ensure that it uses only lawful means of warfare during armed conflicts.
Binding directives of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) require legal reviews of weapons and weapon systems as part of the procedures for their research, consideration, development and procurement.
Review authority
Legal reviews are conducted by the Military Advocate General Corps of the IDF. A review is undertaken by a military lawyer with expertise in the law of armed conflict and in other rules of international law applicable to weaponry. The review process involves a dialogue with operational, technological, health, and other experts, and relies on materials received from these experts, where relevant.
Scope of review
The legal review of a weapon considers its planned uses and the normal circumstances in which it is expected to be used; it is not necessary to foresee or analyse unusual applications or misapplications of the weapon, which lie outside the scope of purposes for which it is acquired.
Standard of review
The legal review focuses on three questions:
- whether the weapon is capable of being used discriminately;
- whether the weapon is calculated to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering;
- whether the weapon falls within a category of weapons that has been specifically prohibited or restricted by an international convention to which Israel is a party, or under customary international law.
Conduct of the review
Procedures require that a legal review take place at a relatively early stage in the process, before the formal approval of a weapon project. In practice, the military lawyer will be consulted at even earlier stages, while considering whether to initiate a project in the first place. It is also possible that the military lawyer will accompany the project’s team in an ongoing manner throughout the process, depending on the project’s complexity, whilst advising on the development and testing process from a legal standpoint, and conducting the legal review in light of the issues which may arise during this process.
Outcome of the review
In some cases the outcome of the review may be a finding that the weapon is not unlawful per se, but that its legal use is subject to specific restrictions arising out of the applicable rules of international law. In such cases, the reviewing authority will mandate that these restrictions must be integrated into operational directives governing the use of the weapon, should the weapon eventually be approved for use. The review may also advise on practical measures aimed to ensure compliance with the applicable law, such as training programs.
References
Statement by Israel (Meeting of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, 13 April 2016)
Archive of positions