Legal Inquiry
Killer Robots and Global Society: Legality and Legitimacy in Regulating Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Brendan Howe
Since 2018, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has maintained that lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) are politically unacceptable and morally repugnant and has called for their prohibition under international law. Other commentators have joined the Secretary-General’s call for a global prohibition on LAWS. There are, however, several challenges facing a blanket ban on LAWS. First, at present, no commonly agreed definition of LAWS exists, hence it is difficult to ban all categories of an entity when it is not precisely legally defined as the subject of such legislation. Second, there is no universal consensus on the need for legal prohibition, or the extent of required legal controls on different aspects of LAWS. Third, in the face of the inevitable development of such systems, regardless of the existence of a ban, it is important to situate future prohibition and regulation within the existing international humanitarian law (IHL) framework, and within less legally binding, but still influential conventions and norms of global society. This paper, therefore, first assesses the definitional challenges facing the regulation and prohibition of LAWS. It then assesses the positions and perspectives of different international actors to assess the extent to which we can uncover a global societal overlapping consensus on the need for at least some limited form of regulation, and on which aspects of LAWS can agreement be reached. Finally, the paper situates recommendations within the existing frameworks of IHL and international norms.
Economic Integration in Sub-Saharan Africa : Prospects and Challenges
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Malefa Rose Malefane
This paper aims to unravel the experiences of the different forms of economic integration in sub-Saharan Africa. Such analysis allows us to scrutinize the prospective effects of these integrations and the challenges thereof. There are around fifteen regional arrangements in Africa, most of which overlap between the involved countries. For this study, the focus is on the three selected regional arrangements, namely, the Economic Community of West African Studies (ECOWAS), the East African Community (EAC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Using the common correlated effects panel estimation techniques, the findings of this paper reveal the disparities in the net effects of economic integration among the different regional economic associations in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper also identifies the underlying fundamental objectives behind each selected regional arrangement and further assesses the short-term or long-term effects of such an arrangement. Reviewing these different forms of regional economic associations in sub-Saharan Africa enables a fair conclusion to be drawn on the general net effects of economic integration particularly given the newly founded African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Also, discussing the underlying impediments can enlighten the AfCFTA. Of the few scientific studies that have been conducted on economic integration in sub-Saharan Africa, the major conclusions that emerge show controversial evidence on the effects of regional integration. Nevertheless, the main constraints to economic integration in sub-Saharan Africa include the problems arising from a lack of political commitment and overlapping membership.
Strategies for Peacemaking Among the Akambas of Kenya
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Victoria Time
This study presents ethnographic findings based on fieldwork conducted in three counties in Kenya from January to June 2023. The goal of the study was to learn and understand why alternative methods of dispute resolution, in particular, mediation appeals to a significant faction of the Kenyan population. Two levels of exploration were employed. First, through 62 interviews, 52 of which were with local mediators in the three research counties, and 10 with jurists in Nairobi, descriptive accounts of the merits of mediation including its harmony-focused goal, expediency, congeniality, convenience, cost-efficiency, satisfaction, transparency, among other factors, resonated among most of the interviewees, and provided invaluable insights on the merits of mediation. Second, based on participant observation of 31 local trials the affable ways of settling disputes without virulent attacks were observed. Both research strategies helped in lending support to the peacemaking perspective in criminology, which advocates understanding, compassion, peace and social justice. A few limitations of the study comprising the absence of interviews with litigants and a less than robust sample are reported.
