International Humanitarian Law

International Humanitarian Law - sometimes called ‘Geneva Law’ after the Geneva Conventions - is one of the two principal sectors of the jus in bello, the law seeking to regulate, and mitigate, the conduct of armed conflicts which in fact arise.  It is concerned to protect the ‘victims’ of armed conflict from the effects of hostilities to the greatest possible extent.  For this purpose, the ‘victims’ are essentially all those who are, or have been rendered, hors de combat in relation to the conflict in question, meaning the sick, wounded and/or shipwrecked, prisoners of war and civilians who are themselves not offering hostile action. 

The International Red Cross plays a central role in the development and application of this law and its work is an important part of the subject matter of the course, especially in view of the recent study it has produced on customary international humanitarian law (Cambridge University Press, 2005).  The practical working, and difficulties, of international humanitarian law will be studied in the context of real exigencies of armed conflict, referring to the range of conflicts occurring up to the present time (especially the Bush Administration’s ‘war on terror’).

International Humanitarian Law is distinguished from ‘Hague Law’, governing, broadly, the methods and means of warfare, but in practice International Humanitarian Law does cover some aspects of the conduct of hostilities as such, e.g. in relation to target selection.  In this module, matters relating to the means and methods of warfare will also be treated, and a special study will be made of the legal aspects of conventional and nuclear weapons. 

Other aspects of armed hostilities - such as the law relating to belligerent occupation and environmental protection - will also be covered. In the second term, attentions will turn to non-international armed conflicts and the relationship which international humanitarian law shares with “human rights”. The course will conclude with a study of the judicial and non-judicial mechanisms for the enforcement of international humanitarian law, together with an assessment of the obligations and entitlements of parties upon the termination of hostilities.

Image courtesy of the UN.