O pesadelo de Čapek: o emprego de armas autônomas à luz do princípio da distinção

Abstract

The present dissertation aims to identify criteria to the employment of autonomous weapon systems in contemporary armed conflicts, with a focus on the protection of the civilian populations and of the civilian objects. The inquiry will have an empirical approach, with data sample taken from the body of humanitarian customs, international practice and the case-law from international courts related to the protection of civilians. The general goal is to specify the objective limits to the use of autonomous weapon systems in a battlefield where the civil presence is a reality. The specific goals are to check the prevailing definition for these systems, as well as their risks; verify the possible impact that the contemporary face of the principle of distinction and of the prohibition of indiscriminate weapons may cause in the present study; and to point general limits, arising from weapon reviews and precautionary measures, and more particular cases to said employment, by the search, in the latter’s case, of the conceptual core as well as the legal nature of the alleged meaningful human control. This analysis will follow the inductive approach and as the theoretical framework the notion of the “civilianization” of contemporary armed conflicts, as presented by Andreas Wenger and Simon Mason, will be used