Law School

Dr Damian Copeland

Adjunct Associate Professor
TC Beirne School of Law
View researcher profile

Researcher biography

Damian Copeland is a Senior Research Fellow with the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland in the Law and Future of War project. Damian’s research focuses on the application of export control, arms trade and sanctions regimes relevant to the export and brokering of trusted autonomous military systems and associated technology. His broader research and teaching interests include international humanitarian law and domestic counter-terrorism law.

Damian completed his Bachelor of Law (Hons) at the Queensland University of Technology and Masters in Law (Merit) at the Australian National University. He is completing a PhD at the Australian National University on the Article 36 weapon review of autonomous weapon systems.

Damian is serving member of the Australian Defence Force (Army Legal Corps) and has served in Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor, Cambodia and Somalia.

Publications

Book Chapters (3)
Journal Articles (2)
Conference Papers (3)
Newspaper Articles (3)

Book Chapters

Tattersall, Alec and Copeland, Damian (2021). Reviewing Autonomous Cyber Capabilities. Autonomous Cyber Capabilities under International Law. (pp. 205-257) edited by Rain Liivoja and Ann Väljataga. Tallinn, Estonia: NATO CCDCOE Publications.
Saultry, Penny and Copeland, Damian (2019). Domestic legal framework for operations. Military law in Australia . (pp. 161-171) edited by Robin Creyke, Dale Stephens and Peter Sutherland. Alexandria, NSW Australia: The Federation Press.
Copeland, Damian P. (2014). Legal review of new technology weapons. New Technologies and the Law of Armed Conflict. (pp. 43-55) The Hague, Netherlands: T.M.C. Asser Press. doi: 10.1007/978-90-6704-933-7_4

Journal Articles

Copeland, Damian, Liivoja, Rain and Sanders, Lauren (2022). The utility of weapons reviews in addressing concerns raised by autonomous weapon systems. Journal of Conflict and Security Law, 28 (2), 285-316. doi: 10.1093/jcsl/krac035
Copeland, Damian and Reynolds, Luke (2017). How to Avoid 'Summoning the Demon': The Legal Review of Weapons with Artificial Intelligence. Pandora's Box, 24, 97-109.

Conference Papers

Copeland, Damian (2018). Conducting Article 36 Weapon Reviews of increasingly autonomous weapons. 78th Biennial Conference of the International Law Association, Sydney, NSW Australia, 19-24 August 2018.
Copeland, Damian (2016). Nine questions concerning the legal review of autonomous weapons. New Technologies & Weapons, Means and Methods of Warfare: Challenges for International Humanitarian Law, Seoul, South Korea, 22-23 September 2016.
Copeland, Damian (2016). Article 36 Review of New Technology Weapons. International Military Operations and Law Conference, Vancouver, Canada, 16-19 May 2016.

Newspaper Articles

Copeland, Damian and Sanders, Lauren (2021, 10 07). Engaging with the industry: integrating IHL into new technologies in urban warfare International Committee of the Red Cross: Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog 1-5.
Sanders, Lauren and Copeland, Damian (2021, 09 15). Holding autonomy to account: legal standards for autonomous weapon systems Articles of War 1-7.
Sanders, Lauren and Copeland, Damian (2020, 11 27). Developing an approach to the legal review of autonomous weapon systems ILA Reporter 1-6.

Areas of research

Law and the Future of War
Law, Science and Technology
Military Law
Public International Law