Dr William Boothby

Dr Willian Boothby is an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP.

Air Commodore Bill Boothby retired as Deputy Director of Royal Air Force Legal Services in July 2011. He took a Doctorate at the Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany and has published books, inter alia, on Weapons Law, Targeting Law, the law relating to conflict and on new and emerging technologies.  More recently with Prof Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, he published a Commentary on the US DoD Law of War Manual and ‘Nuclear Weapons Law’, both with CUP. His book on AI Warfare and the Law was published by USNWC in January 2025 and a revised book on Nuclear Weapons Law, co-edited with Prof Heintschel von Heinegg, was published in May 2025. The current focus of his research is brain technologies, warfare and the law.

He has been a member of Groups of Experts that addressed Direct Participation in Hostilities and that produced the HPCR Manual of the Law of Air and Missile Warfare, the 2013 Tallinn Manual on the Law of Cyber Warfare and the Leuven Manual on Peace Operations Law.  He is Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg and an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.