The Geneva Conventions are the best-known and longest-established laws governing warfare, but what difference do they make to how states engage in armed conflict? Since the start of the "War on Terror" with 9/11, these protocols have increasingly been incorporated into public discussion. We have entered an era where contemporary wars often involve terrorism and guerrilla tactics, but how have the rules that were designed for more conventional forms of interstate violence adjusted? Do the Geneva Conventions Matter? provides a rich, comparative analysis of the laws that govern warfare and a more specific investigation relating to state practice. Matthew Evangelista and Nina Tannenwald convey the extent and conditions that symbolic or "ritual" compliance translates into actual compliance on the battlefield by looking at important studies across history. To name a few, they navigate through the Algerian War for independence from France in the 1950s and 1960s; the US wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan; Iranian and Israeli approaches to the laws of war; and the legal obligations of private security firms and peacekeeping forces. Thoroughly researched, this work adds to the law and society literature in sociology, the constructivist literature in international relations, and legal scholarship on "internalization." Do the Geneva Conventions Matter? gives insight into how the Geneva regime has constrained guerrilla warfare and terrorism and the factors that affect protect human rights in wartime.

The Fourth Geneva Convention, signed on 12th August 1949, defines necessary humanitarian protections for civilians during armed conflict and occupation. One-hundred-and-ninety-six countries are signatories to the Geneva Conventions, and this particular facet has laid the foundations for all subsequent humanitarian global law. How did the world – against seemingly insurmountable odds – draft and legislate this landmark in humanitarian international law? The Fourth Geneva Convention for Civilians draws on archival research across seven countries to bring together the Cold War interventions, founding motives and global idealisms that shaped its conception. Gilad Ben-Nun draws on the three key principles that the convention brought about to consider the recent events where its application has either been successfully applied or circumvented, from the 2009 Gaza War, the war crimes tribunal in the former Yugoslavia and Nicaragua vs. the United States to the contemporary conflict in Syria. Weaving historical archival research, a grounding in the concepts of international law, and insightful analysis of recent events, this book will appeal to a broad range of students, academics and legal practitioners.

Do the Geneva Conventions Matter? provides a rich, comparative analysis of the laws that govern warfare and a more specific investigation relating to state practice and gives insight into how the Geneva regime has constrained guerrilla warfare and terrorism and the factors that affect protect human rights in wartime.

The 1949 Geneva Conventions are the most important rules for armed conflict ever formulated. To this day they continue to shape contemporary debates about regulating warfare, but their history is often misunderstood. For most observers, the drafters behind these treaties were primarily motivated by liberal humanitarian principles and the shock of the atrocities of the Second World War. This book tells a different story, showing how the final text of the Conventions, far from being an unabashedly liberal blueprint, was the outcome of a series of political struggles among the drafters. It also concerned a great deal more than simply recognizing the shortcomings of international law revealed by the experience of war. To understand the politics and ideas of the Conventions' drafters is to see them less as passive characters responding to past events than as active protagonists trying to shape the future of warfare. In many different ways, they tried to define the contours of future battlefields by deciding who deserved protection and what counted as a legitimate target. Outlawing illegal conduct in wartime did as much to outline the concept of humanized war as to establish the legality of waging war itself. Through extensive archival research and critical legal methodologies, Preparing for War establishes that although they did not seek war, the Conventions' drafters prepared for it by means of weaving a new legal safety net in the event that their worst fear should materialize, a spectre still haunting us today.

A comprehensive and accessible resource covering all aspects of forensic and legal medicine. The text provides a foundation for those working in both the clinical and forensic aspects of care and will also be an asset to those involved in the police or judicial systems. Including clear guidelines for practical applications, and further enhanced by its many illustrations and case examples, this text is a valuable resource in an increasingly complex field. The authoritative work is writtenn by those who have extensive experience for a wide audience including, but not limited to, forensic pathologists, general pathologists, pediatric pathologists, forensic physicians, forensic scientists, coroners, emergency department physicians, judges and legal practitioners.

The book is designed to provide an overview of the development, meaning, and nature of international humanitarian law (IHL). It presents a critical review of the protection of the injured, sick and shipwrecked, prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians during times of war, the prevention of forcible transfer of civilians, the four Geneva Conventions from a Third World point of view, the ideals of distinction, proportionality and precaution from the point of view of Islamic law and the issues faced in implementing IHL. This lucidly written and timely book will greatly benefit anyone interested in the protection of victims of armed conflict. Contents: Notes on editors; Notes on contributors; List of acronyms and abbreviations; Preface; Foreword; International Legal Protection of Persons Affected by War: Challenges and the Way Forward, Md Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan and Borhan Uddin Khan 1 The Development of the Geneva Conventions, Borhan Uddin Khan and Nazmuzzaman Bhuian 2 The Legal Status and Protection of the Rights of Prisoners of War, Md Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan 3 The Prohibition of Deportation and Forcible Transfer of Civilian Populations in the Fourth Geneva Convention and Beyond, Etienne Henry 4 Combatants Aboard Medical Aircraft Who Fall into the Hands of a Neutral Power – the Scope of Their Liability to Detention Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocol I, Yutaka Arai-Takahashi 5 Forced Transfer of Aliens during Armed Conflicts, Pablo Antonio Fernández Sánchez 6 The Geneva Conventions and Non-International Armed Conflicts, Noelle Higgins 7 Four Geneva Conventions of 1949: A Third World View, Srinivas Burra 8 Criminalising Rape and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts: Evolving Criminality and Culpability from the Geneva Conventions to the Bangladesh International Crimes Trial, M Rafiqul Islam 9 Principles of Distinction, Proportionality and Precautions under the Geneva Conventions: The Perspective of Islamic Law, Mohd Hisham Mohd Kamal 10 Implementation of International Humanitarian Law and the Current Challenges, Borhan Uddin Khan and Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah 11 The Geneva Conventions and Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law, Derek Jinks Index.

A theoretically-informed, critical account of the making of the international legal rules governing civil war.

To Do, To Die, To Reason Why offers a new account of the ethics of war and the legal regulation of war. It is especially concerned with the conduct of individuals, including whether they are required to follow orders to go to war, what moral constraints there are on killing in war, what makes people liable to be killed in war, and the extent to which the laws of war ought to reflect the morality of war. Victor Tadros defends a largely anti-authority view about the morality of war, and notable moral constraints on killing in war, such as the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing and a version of the Doctrine of Double Effect. However, he argues that a much wider range of people are liable to be harmed or killed in war than is normally thought to be the case, on grounds of both causal involvement and fairness. And it argues that the laws of war should converge much more closely with the morality of war than is currently the case.

This incisive book unveils and illuminates the relationship between international law and history, providing examples from a wide range of domains of global governance. With particular reference to international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law, leading scholars and practitioners in international law, history and diplomacy offer original analysis and innovative paradigms of cross-interdisciplinary research in the field.