ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the normative limits of ‘meaningful human control’ (MHC). That autonomous weapon systems (AWS) must, like other weapons, remain under MHC is a popular demand in response to various worries about AWS. These include (i) that AWS may not be able to comply with the laws of war; (ii) that delegating life-and-death decisions to algorithms presents a grave affront to human dignity; and (iii) that it may become impossible to ascribe responsibility for harms caused by AWS. This chapter probes the relationship between the moral significance of human control on the one hand and autonomy in weapon systems, conceived as a certain degree of independence from human agency, on the other. In challenging the justificatory force of MHC in mainstream discussions, this chapter offers a starting point for rethinking what role the notion should play in debates about the ethics of AWS.
