International Humanitarian Law and International Law of Armed Conflict
International Humanitarian Law and International Law of Armed Conflict
International Humanitarian Law and International Law of Armed Conflict
20.04.2020
• Armed conflicts were until the 19th century considered as a natural form of
relations between nations.
• During this period, there are also attempts of their legal regulation. Law became
a factor early in the historical development of warfare.
• The law of war, in the broader sense and due to traditional international law, is
defined as a special sector of international law, containing all the rules of war.
Jus post Bellum, largely historically neglected prong of the Just War
Tradition, that focuses on the issues regulating the end of warfare and
the return from war to peace (what a just peace should look like).
• Protection of Territorial Integrity - States possess an inherent right to protect their national borders,
airspace, and territorial seas. No nation has the right to violate another nation’s territorial integrity, and force
may be used to preserve that integrity consistent with the Article 51 (and customary) right of self-defense.
• Protection of Nationals - Customarily, a State has been afforded the right to protect its citizens abroad if
their lives are placed in jeopardy and the host State is either unable or unwilling to protect them. This right is
cited as the justification for non-combatant evacuation operations.
• Also referred to in Article 51, the inherent right of collective self-defense allows
victim States to receive assistance from other States in responding to and
repelling an armed attack.
• To constitute a legitimate act of collective self-defense, all conditions for the
exercise of an individual State’s right of self-defense must be met, along with
the additional requirement that assistance must be requested by the victim
State.
• There is no recognized right of a third-party State to unilaterally intervene in
internal conflicts where the issue in question is one of a group’s right to self-
determination and there is no request by the de jure government for assistance.
• Collective defense treaties are such as that of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (the
Rio Treaty), the Security Treaty Between Australia, New Zealand, and the
United States (ANZUS), and other similar agreements.
• This includes the provision of food, shelter and medical care, and the right to
exchange messages with their families. The law sets out a number of clearly
recognizable symbols which can be used to identify protected people, places
and objects. The main emblems are the red cross, the red crescent and the
symbols identifying cultural property and civil defence facilities.
• •1907 Hague Regulations (Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and
its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The Hague, 18 October
1907)
• •Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in
the Field, Geneva, 12 August 1949
• •Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked
Members of Armed Forces at Sea. Geneva, 12 August 1949
• •Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949
• •Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August
1949
• •Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection
of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977
• •Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection
of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977
• Protocol additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Adoption of
an Additional Distinctive Emblem (Protocol III), 8 December 2005
• The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 limited the means by which belligerent
states could conduct warfare.
• This method is exemplified by the Hague law, consisting of the various Hague
Conventions of 1899, as revised in 1907 , plus the 1954 Hague Cultural Property
Convention and the 1980 Certain Conventional Weapons Convention.
• The rules relating to the means and methods of warfare are primarily derived from
Articles 22 through 41 of the Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of
War on Land annexed to Hague Convention IV. Article 22 states that the means of
injuring the enemy are not unlimited.
• Military Publications. Military manuals are not sources of law in the context of
creating law. Rather, such manuals are useful references in developing an
understanding of the application of LOAC concepts within the military
generally and specific services in particular.