In the recent past the horrors of war have been demonstrated all too vividly. Who would have believed that after Nuremberg there would be any further need for war crimes tribunals, or for the creation of an international criminal court? But, whilst people in conflict countries suffer the mental and physical scars from military bombardment, they also suffer the silent legacy of environmental pollution. The world functions as one large ecosystem: the contamination of one element inevitably feeding into another. Pollution in peacetime has been greatly reduced, but what is the wartime cost to the...

Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? In other words, who guards the guardians? At a time when the mandate of many peace support operations includes halting violations of international humanitarian law by third parties, there is still a lack of clarity concerning accountability of peace support operations themselves. This book addresses that accountability, focusing on peace support operations under the command and control of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is concerned with the accountability of international organizations as well as troops contributing and member...

Challenging the perception that women are exclusively the victims, the caregivers or the passive supporters of men in times of armed conflict, Listening to the Silences: Women and War exposes the reader to a diversity of women's voices. These voices, both personal and academic, demonstrate that women are increasingly taking on less 'traditional' roles during war, and that these roles are multifaceted, complicated and sometimes contradictory. The experiences of a judge, forensic anthropologist, survivor of sexual slavery, soldier, activist, journalist, humanitarian worker and others...

Belligerent Reprisals examines the historical developments in the law and practice relating to recourse to belligerent reprisals, as a (primitive) means of law enforcement in the hands of a party to an armed conflict, victim of a violation of the law of war at the hands of its enemy. As a legal concept, the notion means that the victim in turn violates a rule of the same body of the law of war, with the purpose of thus inducing the enemy to terminate its unlawful conduct. However, the enemy may in its turn denounce the so-called reprisal as an unlawful act of war and retaliate against it,...

This book is dedicated to the memory of Sir Richard May, who passed away on 1 July 2004, and to the rich legacy he has left behind in the area of international criminal law. It contains in-depth analyses of a range of issues critical to the development and understanding of international criminal law, written by contributors who worked in some way with Sir Richard during his tenure at the ICTY, particularly during his last years as Presiding Judge of the Milosevic Trial. It contains a Foreword by the President of the ICTY, Theodor Meron, and substantive work in three main parts: one chapter...

This collection is an integrated body of essays that provides a comprehensive range of viewpoints on how international legal and political mechanisms can address the catastrophic consequences of deadly conflict in today's world. The authors are drawn from a diverse range of disciplines encompassing law, peace studies, international relations and criminal justice and include judges, members of the military, academics, United Nations personnel and representatives of non-government organisations.

This work represents an analysis of and a reflection on the new challenges of humanitarian law in armed conflicts. It covers the jurisprudential dimension not only of the International Court of Justice, but also all the different legal bodies, including the ad hoc tribunals created by the United Nations. It analyses the purely doctrinal dimension of general aspects such as the solutions to world disorder in this field, the relationship between jus in bello and jus ad bellum, the principles of universal and international jurisdiction, and the notion of justice and peace. More concrete aspects...

The purpose of this work is to trace the processes that led and continue to lead to the formation of the treaty norms applicable in non-international armed conflicts. If the purpose of humanitarian law is to achieve a balance between military necessity and humanitarian considerations and to prevent unnecessary suffering and destruction, humanitarian law rules should be equally applicable to both international and internal armed conflicts. Whilst, however, there are a huge number of treaty provisions applicable to international armed conflicts, very few provisions are specifically designed to...

The papers collected in this volume span a 35-year period of active involvement in the 'reaffirmation and development of international humanitarian law'. A process under that name started in 1971 and ended in 1977 with the adoption of two Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, one for international and one for internal armed conflicts. Subsequent developments brought a narrowing of this gap between international and internal armed conflicts, as well as growing recognition of the interplay between the law of armed conflict and human rights, the rediscovery of individual...

Death and destruction are unavoidable effects of war and combat situations. The fact that people have been killed or injured or property has been destroyed should not encourage anyone to rush to the conclusion that war crimes have been committed. On the contrary, before reaching such a conclusion, it is necessary to carefully analyze the conduct of the person causing death, injury or damage in order to ascertain whether such conduct is consistent with international humanitarian law. Technology, law and public opinion on what is acceptable has greatly evolved since World War II. The issue of...