Artificial Intelligence, Lawyers And Laws Of War
In Afghanistan and Iraq, a military lawyer was always at the table for strike decisions, said the chief of Army Futures Command. In future wars, there may not be time to go around the table.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on April 23, 2021 at 11:01 AM
Gen. Mike Murray
WASHINGTON: “My entire career, I’ve stood around a mapboard and the lawyer’s always right there,” said Gen. Mike Murray, who commanded troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. But in a highly automated future war of long-range missiles, swarming robots, and sensor jamming, warned the head of Army Futures Command, “you’re not going to have 30 seconds to stand around a mapboard and make those decisions.”
“Back when I was a brigade commander, even when I was commander of the Third Infantry Division in Afghanistan,” Murray recalled, “life and death decisions were being made just about every day, and it usually was around, either [a] mapboard or some sort of digital display.” Along with the staff officers for intelligence, operations and fire support, he said, one of a handful of “key people standing around that mapboard” was the command’s lawyer, its Staff Judge Advocate.
“The lawyer always got a say,” the general went on. “Is this is just a viable course of action, given the law of armed conflict?… Is this a legal response? And usually those discussions would take some time. I think in the future the opportunities to get people around the map board and have a detailed discussion — to include discussions about the legality of the actions you’re contemplating as a commander — will be few and far between.”
https://breakingdefense.com/2021/04/artificial-intelligence-lawyers-and-laws-of-war-the-balance/
