Third and Final Working Session Day of the Seminar

All good things must come to an end, and so has the XI Seminar for Legal Advisors of the Armed Forces.

On Friday, the final day went under the theme New Military Technologies and the Law. It was chared by Brigadier-General Professor Dr. Paul Ducheine (National Defence University; The Netherlands).

Brigadier-General Professor Dr. Paul Ducheine. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

First speaker of the day was Marika Ericson (lecturer and PhD candidate, Swedish Defence University; Sweden) on the topic of the Swedish experiences in regards of the interplay between domestic law and international law, and the institutional responsibilities.
Ms Ericson emphasized that the weakest point in cyber security is that technology is developed based on everything but security. Moreover, is cyberattacks a challange to the dichotomy of war and peace? Do we need a third paradigm?

Marika Ericson. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

Colonel Gary Corn (Staff Judge Advocate, US Cyber Command; USA) gave a presentation on Navigating Grey Zone Challenges in and through Cypberspace. COL Corn also pointed out the difficulty of categorizing a cyberattack as an armed attack or as an action in peace time. He emphasized that before taking countermeasures to a cyberattack, states have to analyze what authority it has, and that states need to have justification in interantional law in order to take action. He also stressed the necessity of defining whether the cyberattack breached any interanational laws or was lawful.

Colonel Gary Corn. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

The Seminar continued with a presentation from Dr. Heather Harrison Dinniss (Senior Lecturer in international law, Swedish Defence University; Sweden) on Human Enhancement Technologies: Solider 2.0 – Miliatry Human Enhancement & International Law. As Dr. Harrison Dinniss clarified, the human enhancement applies to the idea of Captain America rather than the Terminator, that is, not robots. She talked about three major developments in human enhancement: biochemical, cybernetics and prostheses. We are upgrading people. Giving them abilities what is beyond what is considered “normal”.

Dr. Heather Harrison Dinniss. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

Dr. Bill Boothby (Associate Fellow Geneva Centre for Security Policy, UK) spoke of autonomous weapons and some of the problems with the concept of "person in the loop" in regards of remotely polited aircrafts. The loop consists of two links: the uplink from the operator to the aircraft through which instructions are given; and the downlink from the aircraft to the centre giving information to the operator - who gives instructions to the aircraft.

Dr. Bill Boothby. Photo: Zarah Abrahamsson

The Seminar ended with a closing dinner.

/Zarah