Writing in NLJ this week, Aidan Lloyd of Hugh James and Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers explore technologies that can incapacitate soldiers invisibly, optimise performance, trigger weapons before conscious thought and even alter memories.
Existing humanitarian law relies on distinctions between person and weapon, intention and execution, and combatant and non-combatant. Neurotechnology erodes them. A biologically helpless soldier’s autonomous equipment might continue firing, stripping them of hors de combat protection, while pre-conscious weapons could separate actus reus from mens rea.
Dual-use medical tools also evade conventional weapons reviews and may blur medics’ protected status. Responsibility could migrate upwards to commanders who deploy systems beyond meaningful human control. Memory modulation poses another dilemma: therapeutic relief may undermine testimony and accountability.
The law must decide which elements of human judgement should remain ‘irreducibly human’, the authors write.
