Weapons Law
Hays Parks’s Influence on Cyberspace Operations Capabilities
The recent Articles of War series honoring Hays Parks was a fitting tribute to a great American lawyer that reintroduced his work to the military legal community and its newest generations. The series referenced a seminal paper in which he addressed international...
Cognitive Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (CLAWS)
With the debut of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) in combat, opponents of LAWS have called on States to fast-track the creation of international law that either bans the use of these weapons or mandates meaningful human control over them. If LAWS are used...
Hays Parks on the Means and Methods of Warfare
Hays Parks was one of the leading voices of the United States’ view of the law of war over the last 50 years, and one of the founding fathers of the field of operational law in the U.S. military. Both of us are honored to have either worked directly with him or to...
Symposium Intro: Hays Parks’s Influence on the Law of War
Most developments and codifications of the law of war have been responses to the evolving character of warfare. Indeed, a timeline of law of war treaties reads like a chronicle of changes in the tactics, technologies, and participants in war. Yet like war itself,...
LAWS Debate at the United Nations: Moving Beyond Deadlock
The United Nations is once again hosting a Group of Governmental Experts tasked to report on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). Further debate on this subject at the conceptual level, such as its definition, accountability,...
The U.S. Landmine Policy Complies with International Law
In late January, the United States replaced the Obama Administration’s 2016 landmine policy, which was first introduced in 2014. That policy had proscribed the use of antipersonnel landmines beyond the Korean peninsula. In taking this step, Defense Secretary...