The autonomy inherent in AI systems brings legal challenges. The reason is that it is no longer possible to predict whether and how explanations and actions emanating from AI systems originate and whether they are attributable to the AI system or its operator. The core research is whether the operator of AI systems is contractually liable for the damage caused by its malfunctioning. Is contract law sufficiently prepared for the use of AI systems for contract performance? The answer is provided through a review of the common law, CISG and the German Civil Code (BGB).

This chapter summarises the customary rules pertaining to the right to life. They bind not only States but also international organisations and, with respect to specific rules in certain circumstances, also non-State actors. The chapter further identifies those rules of general international law that have attained the status of peremptory norms (jus cogens) on the basis of their acceptance and recognition as such by the international community of States as a whole. Such norms bind all actors, whether State or non-State in character. Finally, the chapter delineates those rules that are custom in the making – de lege ferenda – but which have not yet crystallised, for want of opinio juris that is both general among States and specific among those States that are specially affected by it.