Attributing Conduct of Autonomous Software Agents with Legal Personality under International Law on State Responsibility

This chapter considers attribution under international law on state responsibility in relation to the conduct of autonomous software agents (ASAs) with legal personality that are used to perform a state’s cyber security functions. It examines the extent to which existing international law is applicable to wrongful conduct by ASAs, and the extent to which the technical autonomy and separate legal status of these entities problematizes the application of the law. Overall, it is argued that ASAs as legal entities are conceptually compatible with existing law, and that even where these entities are legally distinct from the human agents of the state, the link between these entities and the human beings responsible for their creation is sufficient to establish attribution under the law on state responsibility. ; No Full Text