AUKUS Pillar 2 is a response to a rapidly changing strategic and technological environment, driven in significant part by China’s military modernisation. It aims to move advanced capability development faster and bring the Australian, UK and US defence ecosystems closer together across areas such as AI, quantum technologies, cyber capabilities, electronic warfare and hypersonics. But speed and interoperability create their own legal governance challenge.
This presentation asks what happens when cutting-edge military capabilities are designed and developed jointly, but reviewed through separate national legal systems and practices. It considers the attraction, but also the limits, of a unified AUKUS Pillar 2 legal review mechanism, before exploring a more realistic alternative: a Trilateral Legal Review Coordination Mechanism that would enable structured cooperation while preserving national review authority. We suggest that Pillar 2’s success will depend not only on whether the partners can build interoperable technologies, but also on whether they can coordinate the legal oversight needed to govern them.
Presentation by Natalia Jevglevskaja and Renato Wolf for the inaugural AUKUS Pillar 2 Forum hosted by the Responsible by Design Institute and Defence AI Research Network (DAIRNet) on 16 July 2026.
