Research On The Legislation Of National Review Concerning Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Under International Humanitarian Law

International humanitarian law is the short name of "international humanitarian law applicable to armed conflict",which is also commonly referred to as "law of armed conflict" or "law of war".Its core role is to protect those who do not or no longer participate in combat in armed conflict,and to limit the types of weapons,means and methods of warfare used in the armed conflict.In the development process of international humanitarian law,the Hague law and Geneva law are the backbone.Geneva law includes four Geneva Conventions and two additional protocols.Article 36 of the Geneva Additional Protocol I on the protection of victims of international armed conflicts(hereinafter referred to as protocol I)stipulates that States have the obligation to review the legality of the use of weapons.In recent years,the number of armed unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV)in the battlefield has increased rapidly.They are constantly upgraded in technology,have the characteristics of complex and diverse functions,and are closely combined with artificial intelligence technology,and even tend to be fully intelligent.These characteristics make armed UAV different from traditional weapons,and even lead to disputes over the legal status of armed UAV.However,in order to ensure the humanitarian treatment of civilians,combatants and other specific personnel in armed conflict,it is still necessary to review the legality of armed UAV.As weapon system,armed UAV should still meet the requirements of international humanitarian law such as the principle of distinction,the principle of proportionality and the principle of precaution measures.However,due to the lack of specific review standards of international humanitarian law and the inconsistent practice of various countries in terms of legal rank,scope of subject and object,application of principles,procedures and review effectiveness,the legitimacy review system has not achieved good implementation results,China has not established a weapons legitimacy review system,so it is urgent to add relevant legislation.Considering the above facts,taking the identification of armed UAV as the starting point,this thesis is committed to discussing the way in which the national review system should review armed UAV.Based on China’s national conditions and drawing lessons from foreign advanced experience,this thesis proposes to amend relevant laws and regulations to form a rule system supported and supplemented by the National Defense Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Regulations on the Quality Management of Weapons and Equipment,and establish a perfect review system by stipulating technical standards and rules for the composition of reviewers.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter introduces the theory of state review of armed UAV under international humanitarian law.Firstly,this part identifies the armed UAV,defines the armed UAV,and discusses the classification of remotely operated armed UAV and autonomous armed UAV.Secondly,it expounds three theories of the legal status of autonomous armed UAV,namely,combatant theory,weapon theory and combatant&weapon theory.Based on the analysis of the existing theories,the legal status of autonomous armed UAV as the object is determined,which lays the foundation for the discussion of this thesis.Finally,it discusses the direct basis of the review and the internal principles on which the review should be based,and explains the necessity of national review of armed UAV from two aspects: fulfilling international law obligations and preventing human costs.The second chapter analyzes several key issues that need to be paid attention to in the establishment of national armed UAV review legislation,including whether formal legislation are needed,how to determine the level of the review subject and the composition of the reviewers,how to define the scope of the review object,how to judge whether the review object meets the principles of international humanitarian law,what review procedures need to be formulated and how to determine the domestic and foreign effectiveness of the review results.In order to solve the problems raised in Chapter II,the third chapter selects four extraterritorial countries with relatively mature review system-Sweden,the United States,Norway and Australia-from the 19 countries that have formulated review legislation to analyze and compare their legislative experience.On the premise of analyzing and comparing the legal systems of the four countries,combined with China’s specific national conditions,carefully select the provisions that China can learn from and the provisions that China should not transplant.According to the current situation of China’s legal system,the fourth chapter further turns the above conclusions into legislative suggestions.First,revise the National Defense Law of the People’s Republic of China,and the Regulations on the Quality Management of Weapons and Equipment to determine the legislative level,review subject,object,procedure,effectiveness and specific review rules.Secondly,the specific provisions on the composition of reviewers and the technical standards for review shall be formulated and issued in the form of other normative documents to ensure their practicability and flexibility,and finally form a rule system supported and supplemented by laws and regulations at all levels.