The question of what constitutes an armed conflict has featured prominently in international law debates. However, international lawyers have paid less attention to the inextricable question of who is engaged in a conflict, focusing solely on whether there is an armed conflict. Against this backdrop, Alexander Wentker's Party Status to Armed Conflict in International Law explores why it matters and how it is established that a State, international organization, or armed group is a party to an armed conflict. The first part of the book demonstrates that party status is central at all levels of the international legal regulation of armed conflicts, with parties to armed conflict being both key addressees of international law and central reference points for regulating individuals and third parties. In response to increasingly widespread cooperation practices, the book's second part advances an analytical framework for identifying parties to conflicts with multiple parties on the same side (or 'co-parties'). Party Status to Armed Conflict in International Law is aimed at academics, students, and practitioners seeking to understand how armed conflicts are legally regulated. It presents readers with a refined account of how responsibilities are allocated in armed conflicts, enabling deeper insight into how international law can best respond to the realities of contemporary conflicts.

Ever since 9/11 the legal classification of transnational conflicts between states and non-state armed groups, such as Al Qaeda, has become a highly debated topic. While repeatedly referred to as the War on Terror, the legal qualification of the conflict between the US and Al Qaeda remains controversial: US military operations in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda and the use of drones against alleged terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen and other states pose the question as to whether this conflict truly qualifies as one single global war. Similarly, transnational conflicts such as the Colombian operation against a FARC base in Ecuador, Israel’s fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Turkish operations against the PKK in northern Iraq pose difficulties as they transcend individual nations˙ political systems and geographical borders. Whether the law of war (i.e. humanitarian law) is applicable to such conflicts and to what extent human rights law binds the states involved is debated. This work aims to provide structure to the current debate and analyzes the applicability of both humanitarian law and human rights law. Furthermore, it examines and explores approaches to enhance and develop the existing legal framework, including proposed new legal regimes for transnational conflicts. The author argues against the strict separation of international humanitarian law and human rights law and instead borrows from Colombian authorities’ experience in their struggle with the FARC to develop an alternate solution, combining both legal regimes in an integrated approach.

Experienced authors with over 45 years combined teaching and working in the field use fundamental principles and sources to instruct and guide discussion about the application of the law of armed conflict to contemporary and future questions. Students can gain a solid foundation in the law and develop the tools they need to analyze complex legal problems. International Law and Armed Conflict shows how the law informs operational and policy decision-making. Placing the law of armed conflict in context with related fields, such as human rights law and national security law, the text provides a complete framework for understanding legal paradigms during and after conflict. Innovative materials allow flexibility across a range of class scenarios, from a stand-alone course to part of a broader survey class. New to the Second Edition: New technologies and the law of armed conflict, including cyber, unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous weapons systems The conflict in Syria, including ISIS, genocide and chemical weapons attacks Humanitarian assistance and the challenges of protecting the civilian population in urban conflicts Contemporary debates regarding detention in non-international armed conflict, human rights law, and targeted killing Professors and students will benefit from: Experienced authors with over 45 years combined teaching and working in the law of armed conflict field in the military, at think tanks, and in academia Use of the fundamental principles and sources of the law to inform discussions and questions about contemporary and future questions An approach that gives students a solid foundation in the law and the analytical tools they need to analyze complex legal situations and problems and to understand how the law informs and impacts operational and policy decision-making Context that ties together the law of armed conflict with other related fields, such as human rights law and national security law, to provide a complete framework for understanding the legal paradigm applicable during and after conflict Teaching materials include: Substantive and innovative tools and materials to teach this topic as a stand-alone class or as part of a broader class on a range of related topics A Teacher’s manual with additional sources, discussion points, and key background information, all designed for maximum use and flexibility in a range of class scenarios

International law and armed conflict exist in a symbiotic relationship. In some cases, law shapes conflict proactively by imposing normative limits in advance of the appearance of proscribed conduct. Much more commonly, armed conflict either reveals lacunae in the law or demonstrates how law designed for yesterday’s wars falls short when applied to contemporary conflict. When that happens, international law reacts by allowing provisions to fall into desuetude, embracing new interpretations of existing prescriptions, or generating new norms through practice or codification. In the 21st Century, both international security and armed conflict are the subject of arguably unprecedented sea changes. As a result, claims that both the jus ad bellum and jus in bello are unwieldy and ill-fitting in the context of modern hostilities have surfaced prominently. Whether one agrees with such dire assessments, what has become clear is that armed conflict is increasingly exposing faultlines in the law governing the resort to force. The intent of this collection of essays in honour of Professor Yoram Dinstein on the occasion of his 70th birthday is to explore such faultlines, first by identifying them and then by assessing their consequences. In a sense, then, the essays, contributed by the top minds in the field, will serve to assist academics and practitioners to anticipate pressure on the law governing armed conflict and, to the extent possible, react accordingly. Paralleling Professor Dinstein’s classic works – War, Aggression, and Self-Defence and The Conduct of Hostilities Under the Law of International Armed Conflict − the book addresses both ius ad bellum and ius in bello topics.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of factors that transform a prima facie non-international armed conflict (NIAC) into an international armed conflict (IAC) and the consequences that follow from this process of internationalization. It examines in detail the historical development as well as the current state of the relevant rules of international humanitarian law. The discussion is grounded in general international law, complemented with abundant references to case law, and illustrated by examples from twentieth and twenty-first century armed conflicts. In Part I, the book puts forward a thorough catalogue of modalities of conflict internationalization that includes outside intervention, State dissolution, and recognition of belligerency. It then specifically considers the legal qualification of complex situations that feature more than two conflict parties and contrasts the mechanism of internationalization of armed conflicts with the reverse process of de-internationalization. Part II of the book challenges the conventional wisdom that members of non-State armed groups do not normally benefit from combatant status. It argues that the majority of fighters belonging to non-State armed groups in most types of internationalized armed conflicts are in fact eligible for combatant status. Finally, Part III turns to belligerent occupation, traditionally understood as a leading example of a notion that cannot be transposed to armed conflicts occurring in the territory of a single State. By contrast, the book argues in favour of the applicability of the law of belligerent occupation to internationalized armed conflicts.

Explores how the first treaty-based UN international tribunal's judges innovatively applied the law to perpetrators of international crimes in one of the worst conflicts in recent history.

Written by a team of distinguished and internationally renowned experts, this Oxford Handbook gives an analytical overview of international law as it applies in armed conflicts. The Handbook draws on international humanitarian law, human rights law, and the law of neutrality to provide a comprehensive picture of the status of law in war.

The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law sets out a black letter text of international humanitarian law accompanied by case analysis and extensive explanatory commentary by a team of distinguished and internationally renowned experts. This is the fourth edition of this influential and comprehensive handbook. It has been extensively updated and revised, taking into account recent legal developments, such as the 2017 Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty, as well as the ongoing debate on many old and new issues. Areas covered by the book include the notion of direct participation in hostilities; air and missile warfare; military operations in outer space; military cyber operations; belligerent occupation; operational detention; and the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict. The continuing need to consider borderline issues of the law of armed conflict as well as the interplay of international humanitarian law, human rights law, and other branches of international law is highlighted. This Handbook provides an in-depth understanding of the development and current problems of the law of armed conflicts. It considers legal and policy issues both from the views of academics and military and diplomatic practitioners. Finally - and most importantly - it offers a complete account of activities that should be taken to improve the implementation and enforcement of international humanitarian law.

This book challenges the traditional approach to international law by concentrating on international hThis book challenges the traditional approach to international law by concentrating on international humanitarian law and placing the focus beyond States: it reflects on current legal, policy and practical issues that concern non-State actors in and around situations of armed conflict. With the emergence of the nation-State, international law was almost entirely focused on inter-State relations, thus excluding - for the most part - non-State entities. In the modern era, such a focus needs to be adjusted, in order to encompass the various types of functions and interactions that those entities perform throughout numerous international decision-making processes. The contributions that comprise this volume are oriented towards a broad readership audience in the academic and professional fields related to international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international human rights law and general public international law. Ezequiel Heffes, LLM, is a Thematic Legal Adviser in the Policy and Legal Unit at Geneva Call in Geneva, Switzerland, Marcos D. Kotlik, LLM, is Academic Coordinator at the Observatory of International Humanitarian Law of the University of Buenos Aires, School of Law and was a Judicial Fellow at the International Court of Justice between 2018-2019, and Manuel J. Ventura, LLM (Hons), is an Associate Legal Officer in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, an Adjunct Fellow at the School of Law at Western Sydney University, and a Director of The Peace and Justice Initiative.

This volume collects articles on the law of armed conflict and the use of force from the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, to facilitate easy access to content from the leading reference work in international law.