War and Algorithm: The End of Law?

A lecture by Prof. Gregor Noll

Time and Location

March 4, 2020 from noon (12 PM) to 1:00 PM in WCC 3018 (Wasserstein Hall on the HLS campus); lunch provided. Open to the public.

Event summary

Is it possible to subject algorithmic forms of warfare to the rule of law? This is the question I will pursue in my talk, and I will argue that problems with existing laws cannot be overcome by new legislation. Since the advent of monotheism, central to the law itself has been its study by humans. Algorithmic warfare reconfigures this process in such a way that human study only begins once the system has already made a decision. This creates nothing less than an epochal rift, and our traditional understanding of law—indeed, the only understanding of law we currently have—is simply unfit to bridge it.

About the speaker

Gregor Noll is professor of international law at the Department of Law, School of Business, Economics and Law, Gothenburg University. His research covers migration law, the law of armed conflict, the impact of artificial intelligence on law, and the theory of international law. Noll held the Pufendorf Chair at Lund University from 2012 to 2016. Together with an interdisciplinary team of colleagues, he edited and published War and Algorithm with Rowman and Littlefield (2019), analyzing emergent forms of warfare from the perspective of critical theory, philosophy, legal studies, and visual studies.

Video recording