We specialise in the legal review of new weapons, including autonomous weapons and command decision tools.
The Lawful by Design initiative encourages industry to incorporate legal review requirements into the design and development of emerging weapon technologies, and urges states to require demonstrable compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) as part of their procurement and acquisition processes.
Autonomous and AI-enabled weapons (AWS), as well as decision-support systems (DSS), must be designed to comply with the requirements of international humanitarian law (IHL).
Under international law, states are obligated to assess the legality of all weapons before their deployment in armed conflict.
Integrating a client’s international humanitarian law (IHL) obligations into the design and development of weapons, including AWS and DSS, makes commercial sense as it helps ensure the capability can successfully pass the acquiring State’s legal review.
With our support, you can embed your client’s IHL requirements into the system design from the outset avoiding costly R&D investments in systems that meet performance specifications but fail legal review.
Our services
We are the leading advisors to defence industry, states and organisations on the legal review of new weapons.
Article 36 legal input to Capability Design and Development
Article 36 and IHL Training
Pre-investment due diligence and pre-tender bid Article 36 compliance report