The Technological Revolution in International Humanitarian Law | Shiri Krebs

About the Event: New digital technologies are profoundly changing human thought, including in the interpretation and application of international law. In this seminar, I employ both critical and behavioural approaches to international law to reflect on the technological revolution in international law, developing a cognitive-behavioural critique of contemporary law of armed conflict. Through an interdisciplinary and empirical exploration, I demonstrate that despite their differences – methodologically, theoretically, and ideologically – both critical and cognitive-behavioural approaches to international law share a commitment to complexity: a reading of knowledge production as a situated exercise, affected by geography, positioning, and motivations.

About the Speaker: Shiri Krebs is a Professor of Law at Deakin University and Law and Policy Co-Lead at the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC). In 2023-2024 she is a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and a Senior Humboldt Fellow at Hamburg University. She is an affiliate scholar at Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and serves as the elected Chair of the international Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict. Her current funded projects include an ARC DECRA Fellowship studying the regulation of predictive technologies for preventive counterterrorism, at the intersection of law, science, and technology. 

Prof Krebs’ research on international fact-finding, biases in counterterrorism decision-making, and human-machine interaction in drone warfare, has influenced decision-making processes through invitations to brief high-level decision-makers, including at the United Nations (CTED, Office of the Secretary-General), the United States Department of Defence, and the Australian Defence Force. Her recent research awards include the ‘Researcher of the Year’ Award (Australian Women in Law Awards, 2022), the David Caron Prize (American Society of International Law, 2021), the Australian Legal Research Awards (finalist, Article/Chapter (ECR), 2022), and the Vice-Chancellor’s Researcher Award for Career Excellence (Deakin, 2022). 

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