Ethical Oversight under Fire: Evaluating the Ethical Implementation of LAWS within the Royal Netherlands Army
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2025-08-20
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nl
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This thesis examines the applicability of the Comprehensive Human Oversight Framework (CHOF) in addressing the ethical and accountability challenges posed by Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) within the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA). As militaries increasingly adopt autonomous systems, ensuring oversight, accountability, and compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) has become urgent. CHOF offers a strong theoretical model, but its practical effectiveness remains untested in military contexts.
Using an interpretivist, qualitative case study based on three policy documents and eleven interviews with Dutch military stakeholders, this study finds that while the RNLA embeds IHL and responsibility structures in its culture, LAWS expose persistent vulnerabilities: the limited feasibility of robust ex ante Article 36 reviews, unreliable delegation of authority in targeting, and erosion of accountability in post-use review.
CHOF proves valuable as a diagnostic tool, mapping gaps across governance, socio-technical, and technical layers, but it lacks prescriptive solutions. The Glassbox Framework reinforces CHOF by translating norms into observable system behaviour, yet struggles with epistemic norms like distinction and proportionality. Effective oversight requires opening the “black box,” robust TEVV (Testing, Evaluation, Verification, and Validation), improved data governance, and institutional adaptation.
Together, CHOF and Glassbox provide conceptual anchors, but not full solutions.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen