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Law Outlines International Humanitarian Law / Law of Armed Conflict Outlines

International Humanitarian Law Implementation And Accountability Outline

Updated International Humanitarian Law Implementation And Accountability Notes

International Humanitarian Law / Law of Armed Conflict Outlines

International Humanitarian Law / Law of Armed Conflict

Approximately 63 pages

Hello! This is my outline for International Humanitarian Law (IHL), also called Law of War or Law of Armed Conflict. It covers all the main topics in detail, including when a state can lawfully use force, international armed conflicts, non-international armed conflicts, belligerent occupation, targeting, means and methods of war, protected persons and objects, prisoners of war and civilian detainees, humanitarian aid, international criminal accountability, and the interaction of IHL and human rig...

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The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our International Humanitarian Law / Law of Armed Conflict Outlines. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Implementation and Accountability 2

Domestic Obligations under IHL 2

Additional Protocol I, Art. 82 2

Geneva Convention IV, Art. 146 2

Geneva Convention IV, Art. 147 2

Legal Advisor 2

Grave Breaches 2

International Human Rights Law 3

Co-application 3

Note on citations:

For treaties, I have used an abbreviation, followed by a period and the article number. Thus Geneva Convention IV, Article 42 becomes “GC4.42.” Article 2 Common to the Geneva Conventions becomes GC.CA2. The Hague Regulations are HR, and the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions are AP1 & AP2.

Citations in the form “HB000” refer to section numbers in Fleck, The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law (3rd ed.).

I’ve also cited certain academic articles, commentaries and government documents:

ILA-Sydney refers to the International Law Association’s 2018 Sydney Conference Report on the Use of Force.

Sassòli refers to Marco Sassòli’s 2015 article “Combatants” in the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law.

DoD refers to the US Department of Defense Law of War Manual (Dec. 2016 Update).

ICRC guidance on civilians directly participating in hostilities refers to Nils Melzer (ICRC) Interpretive Guidance (2009).

Lubell refers to Noam Lubell, “Fragmented Wars: Multi-Territorial Military Operations Against Armed Groups” 93 International Legal Studies 215 (2017).

Implementation and Accountability

Domestic Obligations under IHL

Additional Protocol I, Art. 82

The High Contracting Parties at all times, and the Parties to the conflict in time of armed conflict, shall ensure that legal advisers are available, when necessary, to advise military commanders at the appropriate level on the application of the Conventions and this Protocol and on the appropriate instruction to be given to the armed forces on this subject.

Geneva Convention IV, Art. 146

The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention defined in Art. 147.

Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts. It may also, if it prefers, and in accordance with the provisions of its own legislation, hand such persons over for trial to another High Contracting Party concerned, provided such High Contracting Party has made out a 'prima facie' case.

Each High Contracting Party shall take measures necessary for the suppression of all acts contrary to the provisions of the present Convention other than the grave breaches defined in Art. 147.

In all circumstances, the accused persons shall benefit by safeguards of proper trial and defence, which shall not be less favourable than those provided by Art. 105.

Geneva Convention IV, Art. 147

Grave breaches to which Art. 146relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer...

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