The first UK drone strike against a UK citizen, which in killing two UK nationals in Syria, has brought the issue of the legality of such deployments into sharp focus and has renewed a controversy that has occupied international lawyers since the US first embarked on such action in 2004 against targets in Pakistan.
There has been much discussion and no little disquiet as to the ‘offensive’ use of drones in the context of extraterritorial targeting of persons and/or locations, particularly as part of a counter-terrorism operation.
Our paper is a short examination of some of the legal issues and challenges involved.