Dorotea Avedisian

Institution: University of Basel, Faculty of Law

Period of stay: 28 September - 11 December 2026

Contact: dorotea.avedisian@unibas.ch

https://ius.unibas.ch/de/personen/dorotea-avedisian/

Profile: 

Dorotea Avedisian is a lecturer and PhD researcher in international criminal law at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Her professional and academic background bridge international law, security policy and multilateral governance. Dorotea has worked for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, both in the Directorate of International Law and in the Embassy of Switzerland in The Hague, Netherlands.

Driven by a commitment to the responsible governance of emerging technologies, her research focuses on the legal limits of military applications of artificial intelligence. She participates in ongoing international policy processes, including the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons, to align her research with developments at the frontier of international law-making. In parallel research projects, she examines the national impact of digital transformation, including the practical and normative implications of AI for the administration of criminal justice in Switzerland. Beyond her scholarly work, she co-leads a think tank on foreign policy, volunteers for refugee and human rights protection, and supports international law moot courts (e.g. as Judge for the ICCMC and the Jean Pictet Competition).

Research Area:

War crimes; international humanitarian law; criminal product liability

Research Title:

Responsibility in the Development of Autonomous Weapon Systems: Towards an Individualisation of Obligations under Legal Weapons Review

Research Outline:

Dorotea’s research project is contextualised in the transformation of contemporary warfare, in which artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in targeting functions. Through an examination of the accountability mechanisms, the project exposes a structural challenge for international criminal law: While existing frameworks are primarily oriented toward conduct occurring in the context of armed conflict, the behaviour of autonomous weapon systems is largely determined in earlier stages of development, often in peacetime and without reference to a specific conflict. This temporal disconnect complicates the allocation of responsibility and risks perpetuating accountability lacunae that have emerged in the wake of accelerating technological transformation.

The project examines the evolving relationship between international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL) in this context. Dorotea investigates whether the preventive obligation contained in Article 36 of Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, requiring states to review the legality of new weapons, can be understood to embody normative standards that extend beyond the State and may be individualised. Building on a historical examination of the cross-fertilisation between IHL and lCL, in which criminal law has progressively contributed to the individualisation of normative obligations, the dissertation explores whether serious failures in the discharge of weapons review obligations may, under certain conditions, give rise to individual criminal responsibility for actors involved in the development of autonomous weapons systems.

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