Legal and Treaty Compliance Reviews
As with lethal weapons, all DOD non-lethal weapons undergo a comprehensive legal and
treaty compliance review to ensure that the system under development is consistent with
domestic and international law, including the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), as well as
any applicable treaties to which the United States is a signatory. Since the Air Force was
the lead service developer, the Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) had the lead in
assessing the legality of the system. The findings of the Air Force JAG were reviewed
and coordinated with the JAGs of the other Services, the Joint Staff, and the Office of the
Secretary of Defense (OSD) General Counsel. With respect to domestic law, the legal
review concluded that there is no law that prohibits the development, acquisition, use, or
possession of weapons such as the Active Denial System. With respect to international
law, the legal review examined the three specific criteria that must be satisfactorily
addressed to determine the legality of a weapon under the LOAC. These include 1)
whether the weapon causes unnecessary suffering that is disproportionate to the military
advantages of using the weapon, 2) whether the weapon is discriminate and capable of
being controlled so it can be directed against a lawful target, and 3) whether there is a
specific rule of law prohibiting its use under LOAC. The legal review concluded that
ADS, when used as intended, does not cause unnecessary suffering due to the brevity of
the effect and the target’s ability to leave the area. ADS is also discriminate since it can
be directed at a specific target. Additionally, there are no specific laws prohibiting use of
a system such as ADS under the Law of Armed Conflict.
In addition to the legal review, a treaty compliance assessment was conducted by the
OSD Treaty Compliance office. This review examined all applicable treaties to which the
United States is a signatory to determine whether the use of ADS would violate any
treaties. The compliance review found ADS compliant with all relevant arms control
agreements.
致死兵器と共に、全国防総省非致死兵器が総合的法律や協定準拠を経る様に、
21:32 2017/08/26土
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