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.
Overview
In the UK, legal reviews are undertaken by military lawyers serving on the staff of the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre. The process is described in detail in a document that is publicly accessible. The review obligation extends to reviewing weapons with novel and technologically advanced processes, which may therefore include those weapons, means and methods with autonomous functions. Legal analysis is focused on the customary international law and international treaty law binding the UK in a situation of an armed conflict. In light of the challenges posed to legal reviews by autonomy, the UK believes that legal reviews could benefit from a mechanism that allows the sharing of best practices.
References
Key documents
- Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, UK Ministry of Defence
UK Weapon Reviews
(11 March 2016)
Further resources
- Richard Batty, “Legal Reviews of New Weapons: Process and Procedures” 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) 58–65
- William H Boothby, “The Law of Weaponry: Is It Adequate?” in Michael N Schmitt and Jelena Pejic (eds), International Law and Armed Conflict: Exploring the Faultlines (Martinus Nijhoff, 2007) 297
- Vincent Boulanin and Maaike Verbruggen, SIPRI Compendium on Article 36 Reviews (SIPRI, December, 2017) 17–18
- Joint Service Publication 383: The Joint Service Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict (2004) ¶ 6.20
