Founded in 1559 by Jean Calvin, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) is dedicated to thinking, teaching, dialogue and research. With 16’500 students of more than 150 different nationalities, it is Switzerland’s second largest university. UNIGE offers more than 290 types of degrees and more than 280 Continuing Education programmes covering an extremely wide variety of fields: exact sciences, medicine, humanities, social sciences, law, etc. Its domains of excellence in research include life sciences (molecular biology, bio-informatics), physics of elementary particles, and astrophysics. UNIGE is also host and co-host to six National Centres of Competence in Research: PlanetS, SwissMap, Chemical Biology, Affective Sciences, Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases and LIVES-Overcoming vulnerabilities in a life course perspective. Just like the city of Geneva itself, the university enjoys a strong international reputation, both for the quality of its research (it ranks among the top institutions among the League of European Research Universities) and the excellence of its education. This acclaim has been won in part due to its strong ties to many national and international Geneva-based organizations, such as the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunications Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Tonight, we go through critical questions about the legitimate use of armed drones across international borders. In an attempt to illuminate the central issues, we intend to first explore the question of legitimacy through the conceptual lenses of legality, morality and efficacy, and then discuss the policy proposal of creating a “Drone Court” where the three indispensable elements might be integrated.
If drones are “here to stay”, it is indeed necessary to distinguish and examine the questions at stake from the perspective of various disciplines, and to deliberate on options for containing this new lethal technology.
