Drones under International Law

Abstract

There is a notable absence of legal approaches to the discourse evaluating use of drones. Even when drones are discussed in a legal context, arguments assert that drones require a new legal regime to adapt to modern qualities and circumstances. In the alternative, this paper argues that drones compatibly fit into existing legal regimes, particularly international criminal law (ICL) and international humanitarian law (IHL) in accordance with general principles of international law. This paper argues that use of drones in armed conflict fits within existing laws governing use of force as the frameworks in use today. It demonstrates that ICL and IHL provide flexible guidelines appropriately suitable to particulars of drones, such as types and capabilities, but more importantly, they continue to provide legal governance applicable to drones as weapons. Legal uncertainty as to the use of drones is thus evaluated within the hypothetical exploration of drone usage culminating in a war crime before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

New Rules for New Tools? Exploitative and Productive Lawfare in the Case of Unpiloted Aircraft

“…Western governments have replied that this is not necessary because remotely piloted aircraft have a human behind the controls and are therefore no different from a conventional aircraft. International legal experts agree with this interpretation, though they caution that the trend toward autonomous aircraft may reopen the issue (Alberstadt, 2014, pp. 223–224; Wuschka, 2011, p. 896).…”

Drones and Possibilities of Their Using

“…To ensure emergency-free and safe operation the accumulators or accumulators packs (series of cells) must be equipped with an electronic battery management system -BMS. Due to the extremely favorable ratio of volume to weight ratio and minimal self-discharge they are a very attractive a power source in model building [7,8]. Classic electrochemical accumulators, despite the increase of their specific energy in recent years do not provide the basic requirement, which is a long residence time of a drone in the air [6] From the user's perspective, used electrochemical accumulators should be characterized by: …”