This first book-length treatment of the law of international humanitarian relief in non-international armed conflicts examines the rights and duties of fighting parties and international humanitarian relief actors and provides practical guidance for frontline humanitarian negotiators and legal professionals.

How to legally assess the situation when humanitarian actors in non-international armed conflicts are arbitrarily denied access to the affected civilian population? The book answers this question from the perspective of the five main actors involved in humanitarian relief in non-international armed conflicts: the affected State, non-State armed groups, humanitarian actors, non-belligerent States and the affected civilian population. It examines the legal regulations and consequences for each of these actors. In doing so, the book not only draws attention to existing legal gaps and challenges, but also encourages readers to rethink outdated legal concepts and discuss new approaches. The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Analyses the legal implications of non-international armed conflicts at a time when their number is constantly growing.

The book considers human rights approaches to crimes from a theoretical and practical perspective, analyses various crimes under international law, and examines the application, implementation and enforcement of international criminal law.

The Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law provides a truly international forum for high-quality, peer-reviewed articles, commentaries on current developments, reports on state practice and documentation that have international humanitarian law as their focal point. The cosmopolitan character of the Yearbook is ensured by its international board of editors, drawn from outstanding experts in the field, as well as by its global network of correspondents, reporting on state practice. All aspects of international law applicable during international and internal armed conflicts are covered, in addition to interesting and significant developments in related fields, such as international criminal law, human rights law, disarmament law and refugee law. Distinguished by its topicality and contemporary relevance, the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law bridges the gap between theory and practice and serves as a useful reference tool for scholars, practitioners, military personnel, civil servants, diplomats, human rights workers and students.

Non-international armed conflicts now far outnumber international ones, but the protection afforded by international law to combatants and civilian is not always clear. This book will set out the legal rules and state practice applicable to internal armed conflicts, drawing on armed conflicts from the US civil war to present day.

This volume of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law takes a close look at the role of so-called “expert manuals” in the interpretation and development of the international law of armed conflict and connected branches of international law relating to military operations. While these manuals can and do play an undoubtedly useful role, their proliferation raises a number of questions. What degree of authority do they have and how much weight should be given to the views expressed in them? What is the methodology they employ and how effective is it in ensuring an as objective and impartial interpretation of the law as possible? What is their place in the doctrine of sources? While there is already a considerable body of literature addressing these and other relevant questions, this volume aims to contribute further to this discussion with contributions by three experts involved in one or more of these manuals in one capacity or another. Alongside these three contributions on this year’s special theme, the second part of the book comprises three chapters that address timely and relevant issues of International Humanitarian Law. These range from starvation as a method of warfare, to emerging technologies of warfare, and also includes reflections on humanitarian assistance. Lastly, the volume concludes with the Year in Review, describing the most important armed conflict-related events and legal developments that took place in 2020. The Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law is a leading annual publication devoted to the study of international humanitarian law. It provides a truly international forum for high-quality, peer-reviewed academic articles focusing on this crucial branch of international law. Distinguished by contemporary relevance, the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law bridges the gap between theory and practice and serves as a useful reference tool for scholars, practitioners, military personnel, civil servants, diplomats, human rights workers and students.

International criminal adjudication, together with the prosecution and appropriate punishment of offenders at a national level, remains the most effective means of enforcing International Humanitarian Law. This book considers the various issues emanating from present-day breaches of norms of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the question of how impunity for such breaches can be tackled. Honouring the work of Timothy McCormack, Professor of International Law at the University of Melbourne and a world renowned expert on IHL and International Criminal Law, contributors of the book explore the interplay between the rules governing accountability for violations of IHL and other areas of law that impact the prosecution of war crimes, including international criminal law, human rights law, arms control law, constitutional law and national criminal law. In providing a contemporary consideration of the various issues emerging from present-day breaches of norms of IHL, especially in light of growing interest in ‘fragmentation’ and ‘normative pluralism’, this book will be of great use and interest to students and researchers in public international law, international law, and conflict studies.

This Handbook provides a black letter text of international humanitarian law, along with case analysis and commentary by a team of internationally renowned experts. It also highlights the interplay of international humanitarian law with human rights law, and other branches of international law.

This book aims to contribute to the global observance of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948. It considers nature and development of international human rights law. It considers how human rights interact with other regimes such as intellectual property, foreign direct investment, corporate social responsibility, international environmental law, humanitarian law, refugee law, economic law, and criminal law. The book then presents human rights of vulnerable populations and sets out contemporary challenges and issues relating to human rights, such as globalisation, the effects of COVID-19, religion, nationality, and the implementation of economic, social, and cultural rights.