On October 24, 2025, RAW team member Jessica Dorsey co-hosted the Lawful by Design Industry Workshop at Utrecht University, in collaboration with Article 36 Legal. The event convened experts from industry, government, academia, and civil society to explore how international humanitarian law (IHL) can be embedded into the design and deployment of military AI systems.
Key discussions focused on the practical challenges of aligning innovation with legal and ethical standards. Participants emphasized that while much of the technology underpinning military AI originates in the private sector, it is states that must set and enforce standards by institutionalizing responsible design, development, acquisition, and use practices.
One of the central takeaways was that embedding responsible design from the outset enables innovation, whereas retrofitting compliance into mature prototypes is slower and more costly. The workshop also highlighted a persistent gap between state commitments under international frameworks and the pace of industry-led development, underscoring the need for initiatives like Lawful by Design to help bridge this divide.
The event further pointed to the underrepresentation of essential multidisciplinary expertise such as IHL lawyers with Article 36 review experience in the private sector. Increased inter-sector dialogue was identified as vital to normalizing and operationalizing responsible design and development practices for military AI.
