Is it even ethical to develop weapons of such lethality, let alone to use them? Arguably the world now faces a third inflection point in the development of combat technology, namely the very real possibility that advanced nations may soon have the ability to deploy autonomous weapons systems (AWS), namely weaponry that has the capacity to select targets and executive lethal force without any human decision-maker in the loop.
Professor Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the Founder and Faculty Director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL), a non-partisan interdisciplinary institute affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). She is a distinguished research fellow at APPC and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). An expert in the law of armed conflict, military ethics, and national security law, she is a co-editor (with Jens David Ohlin) of The Oxford Series in Ethics, National Security, and the Rule of Law, and an editor of five of its volumes: Targeted Killings: Law & Morality in an Asymmetrical World (2012); Cyber War: Law and Ethics for Virtual Conflicts(2015); Weighing Lives in War (2017); Sovereignty and the New Executive Authority (2018); and Preserving Cultural Heritage in Times of War (forthcoming). Professor Finkelstein has briefed Pentagon officials, U.S. Senate staff, and JAG Corps members on various issues in national security law and practice. She is a frequent radio, podcast, broadcast, and print commentator and has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsweek. Her other scholarly work has focused on criminal law theory, moral and political philosophy, jurisprudence, and rational choice theory. She is the editor of Hobbes on Law (Ashgate Publishing, 2005) and is completing a book called Contractarian Legal Theory.
John is a nationally recognized banking attorney who advises financial institutions on regulatory, governance, and investigative matters. He regularly provides focused training sessions to boards and management on a wide range of legal and risk management topics. Working at the forefront of banking law and regulation, John is a thought leader in the field, primarily through teaching, writing, and frequent media interviews.
As the Regulatory Section Leader of BFKN’s Financial Institutions Group, John advises a wide variety of financial institutions around the country about the full spectrum of legal, regulatory, and supervisory issues that they face. He is a frequent speaker and author in the financial institutions area on issues surrounding banking regulations, examinations, and enforcement actions, as well as on cybersecurity.
John devotes significant time to anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and related national security issues. In this regard, he lectures and advises institutions around the country, engages with relevant organizations, and has published on the subject.
Prior to joining BFKN in 1999, John worked as a bank regulator and also as a compliance consultant. He served as legal counsel for the Illinois bank regulatory agency, now the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. John also obtained practical experience with respect to bank operations and compliance issues as a regulatory consultant with a regional accounting firm, performing compliance reviews and training for a variety of financial institutions.