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Chapter 3 elaborates on the linkages between technology and international institutions. It also introduces the guiding questions at the core of the book: how do international institutions respond to the promises and perils associated with transformative novel technologies? When do international institutions respond, when do they not respond, and why do their responses differ? Finally, how could institutional responses be designed in order to better facilitate the realization of technological promise and the avoidance of perils? The chapter contextualizes these questions within broader theoretical discussions in international regime theory and cooperation theory. A key point is that international institutions play a limited, albeit indispensable role in the regulation of transformative novel technologies. International institutions are no substitute for regulation at other scales, including at national levels, but are vital for managing the various transboundary aspects of transformative novel technologies.
Chapter 2 discusses the linkages between technology and environmental sustainability. It starts out with some brief context on key concepts in the contemporary debate: transitions, transformations, and resilience. The chapter continues with two concepts that are central for this book: the idea of the ‘techno-fix’, in the sense of technology potentially providing partial solutions for intractable social- and political problems; and the notion of lock-in, where past technological choices may be difficult to revise or reverse in the present. Further, it develops the notion of technological ‘promises’ and ‘perils’ as key elements of my theoretical framework: transformative novel technologies could produce substantial benefits but also give rise to various types of harm, providing a rationale for governance responses that capture the former and avoid the latter. At the same time, transformative novel technologies tend to be ambiguous as the precise extent to which they entail different types of promises and perils is usually unknown, uncertain or disputed.
This chapter addresses the scope of regulation of means and methods of warfare generally and then examines the prohibition of weapons causing superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, indiscriminate weapons, and weapons harming the environment. It then turns to the regulation of certain weapons, namely nuclear weapons, cluster munitions, UAVs and autonomous and automated weapons systems. The chapter goes on to review the regulation of certain methods of warfare, perfidy and ruses of war, pillage, espionage and improper use of protected emblems. It then discusses weapons review before addressing targeting, military objectives, proportionality in attack and precautions. The chapter closes with discussion of cyber warfare in this context.
This chapter reviews the enforcement of IHL through a range of legal and non legal mechanisms. It first addresses the obligation to respect and ensure respect for IHL, protecting powers, the international humanitarian fact finding committee and the role of human rights bodies. State responsibility, state immunity and acts of state and political question doctrines are then discussed. Reparations, including state reparations, individual reparations and reparations by armed groups are then reviewed. UN immunity, UN enforcement and responsibility in peacekeeping operations, liability and reparations in peacekeeping operations and criminal responsibility in peacekeeping operations are also addressed. The use of belligerent reprisals in the enforcement of IHL and armed groups and enforcement of IHL is then discussed. In conclusion the chapter considers United Nations Action in enforcement of IHL.
The chapter addresses the definition of neutrality in the case of an IAC before discussing the rights and duties of neutrals. Neutrality involves specific duties which may be summarised as abstention, impartiality, prevention and acquiescence. It then reviews neutrals rights, principally inviolability of the neutral states territory. The chapter then goes on to consider neutrality and sea warfare, neutrality and air warfare and neutrality and cyber warfare.
The chapter begins with discussion of the definition of occupation, beginning of occupation, and the end of occupation. It then reviews the rights and duties of the occupying power under Hague Convention IV as customary law addressing public order and safety, security needs of the occupying power, amendment of domestic laws of occupied territory, prolonged occupation of territory and transformative occupation. The chapter then considers the use of lethal force in occupied territory, transfer of the ocupying powers population into occupied territory, deportation, detention and destruction of property. It then addresses the application of IHRL in military occupation and finally the analogous UN adminstration of territory.
This chapter addresses the law regarding non international armed conflict it commences by discussing the applicable law, armed groups and IHL. It then discusses the appolciaiton of human rights in NIACs and derogations as well as the human rights obligations of armed groups. The chapter then considers the geographic and tempral scope of NIACs and the principle of distinction in NIACs. This is then followed by discussion regarding detention, first the general criteria, then guarantees, transfer of detainees, detention by armed groups and finally detention by UN peacekeepers and authorised forces.
Chapter 6 turns to the potential extraction of metals from areas beyond national jurisdiction: Antarctica, the deep seas and outer space. Each of these areas contains, with varying degrees of plausibility, large reserves of metals that are indispensable for a global transition towards sustainability, particularly in the energy and transportation sectors. At the same time, extractive operations would be virtually certain to generate various types of adverse environmental impacts while also raising challenging questions related to fairness and equity: in different ways, the legal regimes applicable to each of these three areas beyond national jurisdiction give effect to collective rights that are most clearly enshrined in the concept of the common heritage of humanity. The chapter assesses institutional responses to this technological field under three international institutions: the Antarctic Treaty System, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the Outer Space Treaty.
In the concluding chapter, we take stock of the legal developments that are likely to shape the implementation and further development of liability rules and process in areas beyond national jurisdiction. We argue that the developments in relation to state obligations of due diligence, the widening scope of compensable damages and the potential for more inclusive rights of standing, as well as rights for states to take response measures in areas beyond national jurisdiction, provides a strengthened foundation for a more robust system of state responsibility for environmental harm in areas beyond national jurisdiction. In recognizing that the approaches to civil liability in areas beyond national jurisdiction remain underdeveloped, we examine the central challenges that remain, as well as some modest pathways towards stronger legal accountability for environmental harm in the global commons.
Chapter 7 assesses the overall findings of the book and provides outlooks and perspectives. The responses of international institutions to transformative novel technologies are mostly deficient in that they do not meaningfully contribute either to the realization of associated technological promises or to the avoidance of perils. Exceptions do exist, however, particularly where transformative novel technologies have a strong normative fit with pre-existing regulatory frameworks and can thus be assimilated by them with relative ease. The chapter also offers broader reflections on how to improve institutional responses to transformative novel technologies and then goes on to elaborate on some conceptual issues that have emerged in the previous discussion: from technology and path dependence to the role of the precautionary principle to the potential problem of ‘slippery slope’ effects in research and development. The chapter then tentatively discusses how the theoretical framework of this book would apply beyond the environmental domain. I conclude with some final considerations on the notion of ‘techno-fixes’ in the global politics of environmental sustainability.
Chapter 5 addresses the potential use of climate engineering technologies as a way of counteracting anthropogenic global warming. These technologies encompass methods for the permanent removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide, for instance via its direct capture from ambient air and subsequent geological storage. They also include more controversial technologies that would modify the planetary albedo in order to reflect a small fraction of incoming sunlight back into space in order to induce an artificial cooling effect. These two sets of technologies play out against the background of the increasingly dim prospects of achieving international temperature targets in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. The chapter traces institutional responses to both negative emissions technologies and solar geoengineering across a multitude of international forums, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the London Convention on the Dumping of Waste at Sea, and the Paris Agreement itself.