Lawful by Design Initiative

Bridging the gap between industry led innovation and national legal review processes

A hand touching a plasma globe with blue and pink electric arcs.

What is the Lawful by Design Initiative?

The Lawful by Design initiative aims to bridge the gap between industry innovation and national legal review processes by integrating legal and ethical compliance into the earliest stages of military technology design, rather than addressing these obligations retrospectively during later phases of development.

It supports and promotes national implementation International Humanitarian Law (IHL) through national Article 36 processes.

It aims to create a common standard for the responsible development of military technology based on legal, ethical, engineering and safety requirements.

What are the benefits of the initiative?

  • Integrate legal considerations early in the development cycle of weapons systems or technologies to avoid costly or ethically problematic revisions later.

  • Minimize the chances of deploying unlawful or controversial systems (e.g., autonomous weapons that can't comply with distinction or proportionality rules).

  • Promote the design of technologies that not only meet legal standards but also reflect broader ethical commitments, including human responsibility and accountability.

  • Enhance trust in new systems by ensuring they will not hinder compliance with IHL on the battlefield, thus making them more viable for adoption.

  • Encourage clear processes to support reviews and potential investigations, fostering both internal accountability and public trust.

How does the LBD initiative work?

The LBD initiative bridges the gap between industry and national legal review processes by:

  • encouraging defence industry to voluntarily commit to considering how IHL impacts the design, development, and use of new technology weapons and mitigating legal risks associated with the design, development, and deployment of new technology weapons; and

  • asking States to incorporate IHL requirements in their acquisition processes by including legal review requirements within tender documentation (i.e. requiring defence industry to demonstrate their product’s ability to be used in compliance with IHL).

LBD Launch Event - 12 June 2025

Article 36 Legal launched the Lawful by Design initiative on 12 June 2025.

The event was hosted by Susan Blain from Susan Blain Consulting and included an expert panel discussion by Dr Damian Copeland, Mr Laurent Gisel (ICRC), Dr Kate Conroy (QUT) and Dr Tristan Perez (Boeing Company). If you missed the launch, please see the video on our YouTube channel.