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Afonso Seixas Nunes, S.J.

Assistant Professor
School of Law

Education

Portuguese Catholic University (Porto Law School)
Portuguese Catholic University, Philosophy (Braga Philosophy School)
Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Theology
London School of Economics, M.A.
University of Essex, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Laws and Armed Conflict

Practice Areas

Originally from Portugal, Afonso Seixas Nunes joins the SLU LAW faculty after having served at Oxford University as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government (ELAC) and as a junior research fellow at Campion Hall. Afonso is also a visiting professor at the Portuguese Catholic University School of Law (UCP- Lisbon). He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 2010.

Research Interests

Afonso specializes in International Public Law in general, and in International Humanitarian Law in particular. Afonso has developed research in areas of new technologies of Warfare, namely Autonomous Weapons Systems and Problems of Individual and State responsibility. Afonso currently teaches International Public Law; International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law.

Publications and Media Placements

'Scapegoats! An assessment of the liability of military commanders for autonomous technologies of warfare' , in Responsible Use of A.I. in Military Systems, CRP and Dutch Ministry of Defence (forthcoming 2024).

Russell Buchan and Nicholas Tsagourias, Regulating the Use of Force in International Law. Stability and Change in Journal of Conflict & Security Law, Vol 28, Issue 1, Spring 2023 (Book Review) ( https://academic.oup.com/jcsl/issue/28/1) 

Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Procedural Accountability Gaps (Forthcoming Brooklyn Journal of International Law, Vol 46, Issue 2,  https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjil/vol46/iss2/3/)

Autonomous Weapons Systems. Legality and Accountability. A Humanitarian Law Perspective (Cambridge University Press (2022).  

Citizenship in a Networked Age. An Agenda for Rebuilding Our Civic Ideals (Templeton Foundation. University of Oxford, 2020) (Collaboration)  
 
Autonomous Weapon Systems. Compatibility with International Humanitarian Law in Direito International e o Uso da Força no Século XXI (Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa, 2019)  
 
“Uma guerra pouco humana? Os chamados Sistemas Autónomos de Guerra in Brotéria, Vol. 185, issue 2/3, 2017, 229-240