This book commences with an analysis of the current state of child soldiering internationally. Thereafter the proscriptive content of contemporary norms on the prohibition of the use and recruitment of child soldiers is evaluated, so as to determine whether these norms are capable of better enforcement. An 'issues-based' approach is adopted, in terms of which no specific regime of law, such as international humanitarian law (IHL), is deemed dominant. Instead, universal and regional human rights law, international criminal law and IHL are assessed cumulatively, so as to create a mutually reinforcing web of protection. Ultimately, it is argued that the effective implementation of child soldier prohibitive norms does not require major changes to any entity or functionary engaged in such prevention; rather, it requires the constant reassessment and refinement of all such entities and functionaries, and here, some changes are suggested. International judicial, quasi-judicial and non-judicial entities and functionaries most relevant to child soldier prevention are critically assessed. Ultimately the conclusions reached are assessed in light of a case study on the use and recruitment of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Written by a team of international lawyers from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean,this book analyses some of the most significant aspects of the ongoing armed conflictbetween the Russian Federation and Ukraine. As challenging as this conflict is for the international legal order, it also offers lessonsto be learned by the States concerned, and by other States alike. The book analysesthe application of international law in this conflict, and suggests ways for this law'sprogressive development. It will be useful to practitioners of international law working at national Ministriesof Defence, Justice, and Foreign Affairs, as well as in Parliaments, to lawyers ofinternational organizations, and to national and international judges dealing withmatters of public international law, international humanitarian law and criminal law.It will also be of interest to scholars and students of international law, and to historiansof international relations. Sergey Sayapin is Assistant Professor in International and Criminal Law at the Schoolof Law of the KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Evhen Tsybulenko is Professor of Law at the Department of Law of the Tallinn Universityof Technology in Tallinn, Estonia.

This collection of essays by Professor Michael N. Schmitt of Durham University draws together those of his articles published over the past two decades that have explored particular fault lines in the law of armed conflict. As such, they examine the complex interplay between warfare and law, seeking to identify where the law and warfare appear to diverge, and where such apparent divergence can be accommodated through contextual interpretation of the law. Each essay examines a particular issue in either the jus ad bellum (the law governing resort to force) or jus in bello (international humanitarian law) that has proven contentious in terms of applying extant norms to the evolving face of armed conflict. Among the topics addressed are counter-terrorism, cyber operations, asymmetrical warfare, assassination, environmental warfare and the participation of civilians in hostilities.

If you believe that States have complete discretion in handling migration matters and that migrants are not protected under international law, read this book. You will be amazed by the wealth of international instruments, treaties, standards and principles existing in international law. Rights and obligations of States, as well as rights and duties of migrants, are defined in a great number of legal instruments - some of them hard to find - stemming from various branches of law and constituting what is known as "international migration law". This publication assists readers - be they academics, students, practitioners, experts or migrants themselves - to better orientate themselves in this web of norms and principles existing at the international level. The focus of the Compendium is a comprehensive compilation of universal instruments with varying degrees of legal force - from authoritative international treaties, through customary international law, to the sets of principles and guidelines which, although non-binding, are nonetheless of clear contemporary relevance and can contribute to the progressive development of law in areas not yet covered by "hard" norms. To further this end, this book is being released as a companion to International Migration Law - Developing Paradigms and Key Challenges (edited by R. Cholewinski, R. Perruchoud and E. MacDonald and published by T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague 2007), which shows how these norms have been applied and are developing in various concrete contexts. Richard Perruchoud is Director of the International migration Law and Legal Affairs Department of the International Organization for Migration in Geneva. Katarina Toemoelova is an Associate Legal Officer in the same Department of IOM.

An earthquake. A conflict. A tsunami. A coup. Increasingly, non-international armed conflicts send thousands of civilians fleeing across borders to safety, whilst (natural) disasters hit areas of the world where resources to address the calamity are scarce. Coinciding emergencies or deliberate obstruction by authorities exacerbate the already dire situation. A humanitarian crisis often ensues. The result of these crises is an immediate and large-scale need for food, water, shelter and medicine: in other words, the provision of humanitarian assistance. Whereas the need for such assistance may be ascertainable, its provision is not without legal and political challenges, and deprivation of aid is unfortunately all too common. Looking at these challenges and circumstances, several issues can be discerned regarding the legal framework governing the provision of humanitarian assistance. These include the fragmentation or conflict of applicable norms, developments within the international legal realm regarding the role of the individual in the receipt of aid and in the responsibility for its provision, as well as the changing nature of conflicts in the world and actors partaking in these conflicts. State sovereignty must furthermore continuously be taken into consideration as part of this legal framework, from the viewpoint of the provision of assistance, its denial and enforcement. This book aims to systematically address these challenges, with an overarching approach to the provision of humanitarian assistance. Part I sets out the boundaries of the existing framework and addresses the relevant concepts pertaining to the delivery of emergency aid. Part II assesses the currently existing rights of the affected persons and duties of the affected state in the delivery of humanitarian assistance, whereas Part III addresses enforcement possibilities in the absence of (sufficient) provision by the affected state. Lastly, recommendations are provided to ensure the protection of those who need it most.

This book addresses questions in connection with the international legal regime on demands for secession, which have arisen in various States. More specifically, it examines the unilateral declarations of independence by Kosovo in 2008, and by Crimea and its subsequent annexation by the Russian Federation in 2014. The work investigates the two cases so as to shed light on the international legal regime affecting entities that are smaller than a sovereign State. It analyzes the relevant principles of international law, the intention being to determine their scope and review them in light of the most recent practice and developments in international law. In turn, the book examines and explains the events of relevance for international law that occurred in the changing situations in Kosovo and Crimea. On the basis of these legal considerations, it explores how the international community can respond when faced with situations that may violate international law, together with the effectiveness of various measures. It also discusses whether certain situations might be legitimate as a concept could now be emerging that secession may be justified in specific circumstances, such as serious and widespread violations of basic human rights.

Over recent decades, international humanitarian law has been shaped by the omnipresence of so-called expert manuals. Astute and engaging, this discerning book provides a comprehensive account of these black letter rules and commentaries produced by private expert groups and demonstrates why the general acceptance of these expert manuals is largely unjustified. This theoretically grounded book bridges the divide between theory and practice by linking legal theory to the doctrinal and practical concerns of the laws of war. The author innovatively links interdisciplinary insights to the needs of military lawyers in practice, showing the pitfalls of relying on private manuals as arguable restatements and interpretations of the law 'as it is'. At the same time, he explains why expert processes are so successful and why this should be of concern to all of us. Stimulating and challenging, this book will prove essential reading for students and scholars of public international law, legal theory, and those focussing on the laws of war more specifically. Its practical approach will also greatly benefit legal practitioners working in the field of military law.

This book explores topical issues in military ethics by according peace a central role within an interdisciplinary framework. Whilst war and peace have traditionally been viewed through the lens of philosophical enquiry, political issues and theological ideas - as well as common sense - have also influenced people's understanding of armed conflicts with regards to both the moral issues they raise and the policies and actions they require. Comprised of fourteen essays on the role and application of peace, the book places emphasis on it's philosophical, moral, theological, technological, and practical implications. Starting with an overview of Kantian perspectives on peace, it moves to discussions of the Just War debates, religious conceptualizations of peace, and the role of peace in modern war technology and cyber-security. Finally concluding with discussions of the psychological and medical impacts of war and peace on both the individual and the larger society, this collection offers a contribution to the field and will be of interest to a wide audience. Chapters 4, 6 and 10 of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.

Professor Hermann Mosler, former Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, former Judge and Vice President of the European Court of Human Rights, Judge of the Interna tional Court of Justice from 1976 to 1985, celebrated his 80th birthday at the end of the year 1992. On 22nd January 1993, the Max Planck Institute organized a colloquium in honour of Hermann Mosler, on a topic which is of theoretical as weIl as practical interest: Interim Measures Indicated by International Courts. The participants of the colloquium were outstanding scholars and experts in the area of international dispute settlement. The present publication is based on the colloquium of January 1993. It contains four reports, namelyon the International Court of Justice (Thirl way), the Court of Justice of the European Communities (Jacobs), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Buergenthal) and the European Court of Human Rights (Bernhardt). Three of the reports were orally pre sented and discussed, and they have been revised and expanded for this publication; the report by Thomas Buergenthal could only be submitted in writing. In preparing the colloquium the authors were requested to concentrate their contributions on the following questions : 1. Legal bases for the indication of interim measures (convention, statute, rules of court). 2. Conditions for the indication of interim measures (jurisdiction, compe tence, admissibility, urgency, necessity - irreparable damage -; request of the parties andjor indication by the court proprio molu).

Humanitarian and Security Law: A Compendium of International and European Instruments presents a comprehensive and easily accessible compilation of the most important legal instruments that pertain to armed conflicts and security threats and which are of use and interest to practitioners and researchers working in the areas of international and European humanitarian and security law. It is the first compendium that methodically compiles all relevant instruments both at the international and the European level.

Leading international security scholars and policy advisors from universities, think-tanks, and nuclear weapons laboratories in the United States analyze the future of nuclear weapons proliferation. In April 1995, the earlier 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was renewed indefinitely and without change to the original clauses of the treaty. The authors examine the continuing relevance or irrelevance of the old treaty, the role of coercive sanctions in enforcing restraint, and the impact of biological, chemical and missile proliferation on the nuclear motives and ambitions of various states. Attention is given to proliferation conditions in the former Soviet republics, East and South Asia and the Middle East.

Civil wars have formed the vast majority of all armed conflicts since the Second World War. These civil wars have often been accompanied by the intervention of foreign states in favour of one or more of the parties. Such interventions raise various general questions regarding conflict classification in international humanitarian law (IHL), which are important because the relevant law that applies is shaped by whether a conflict is classified as international or non-international. This book provides a thorough examination of the theoretical basis of classification of conflicts in IHL, with special focus on the legal impact of armed foreign intervention in civil wars. Noam Zamir enriches the discourse on IHL by providing an in-depth doctrinal examination of issues concerning conflict classification and examining recent civil wars with foreign interventions, such as the Libyan civil war (2011), Mali civil war (2012-2015) and the ongoing civil war in Yemen, and identifying potential solutions to different lacunae in this field. The issue of conflict classification has significant practical ramifications and this book will have a wide and varied readership, including legal scholars, law students and governmental and military lawyers.

The practice of armed conflict has changed radically in the last decade. With eminent contributors from legal, government and military backgrounds, this Research Handbook addresses the legal implications of remote warfare and its significance for combatants, civilians, policymakers and international lawyers. Primarily focused on the legality of all forms of remote warfare, including targeted killings by drone, cyber-attacks, and autonomous weapons, each chapter gives a compelling insight beyond the standard and reactionary criticisms of these technologies. Current assumptions of remote warfare are challenged and discussed from a variety of international perspectives. These include governing the use of force, humanitarian law, criminal law, and human rights law. Contributors consider the essential features of current warfare regulations, and test their strength for controlling these new technologies. Suggestions are made for the future development of law to control the limits of modern remote warfare, with a particular focus on the possibility of autonomous weapons. This is an essential read for academics and students of jus ad bellum, international humanitarian law, criminal law and human rights. Students of political science, governance and military studies will also find this a thought-provoking insight into modern warfare techniques and the complex legal issues they create. Contributors include: W. Banks, G. Corn, E. Crawford, A. Cullen, L. Davies-Bright, G. Gaggioli, R. Geiss, T.D. Gill, R. Heinsch, I.S. Henderson, P. Keane, M. Klamberg, H. Lahmann, J. Liddy, P. Margulies, M.W. Meier, J.D. Ohlin, M. Roorda, J. van Haaster, N. White

This book offers an analysis of the existing normative framework regulating the right to reparation for child victims of armed conflict. The study questions whether the current framework is sufficiently developed to provide child victims with adequate, effective and prompt reparations; furthermore it presents and critically assesses the judicial and non-judicial mechanisms in place as well as the reparations awarded and implemented so far at the international and regional level.The research stems from the need to fill a gap in the current literature on transitional justice, in particular on the right to reparation. Even though reparations are well-established legal measures in several domestic judicial systems all over the world, in transitional periods reparations are not just a means to redress the harm suffered by the victims of wrongful acts, but they also seek to contribute to the reconstitution or the constitution of a new political community in the aftermath of an armed conflict. The overview of the relevant cases and materials provided in this book helps paving the way for reparations that are effective, adequate, prompt, and in line with the international standards set forth by the CRC and other instruments. This book ultimately strives to highlight the shortcomings of the existing mechanisms and it points out the main issues that need to be improved and/or overcome in pursuance of child victims' redress.

The book deals with the controversial relationship between African states, represented by the African Union, and the International Criminal Court. This relationship started promisingly but has been in crisis in recent years. The overarching aim of the book is to analyze and discuss the achievements and shortcomings of interventions in Africa by the International Criminal Court as well as to develop proposals for cooperation between international courts, domestic courts outside Africa and courts within Africa. For this purpose, the book compiles contributions by practitioners of the International Criminal Court and by role players of the judiciary of African countries as well as by academic experts.

"Justice at Nuremberg" traces the history of the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial held in 1946-47, as seen through the eyes of the Austrian bliogemigrblioge psychiatrist Leo Alexander. His investigations helped the United States to prosecute twenty German doctors and three administrators for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The legacy of Nuremberg was profound. In the Nuremberg code--a landmark in the history of modern medical ethics--the judges laid down, for the first time, international guidelines for permissible experiments on humans. One of those who helped to formulate the code was Alexander. "Justice at Nuremberg" provides a detailed insight into the origins of human rights in medical science and into the changing role of international law, ethics and politics.

When faced with those who act with impunity, we seek the protection of law. We rely upon the legal system for justice, from international human rights law that establishes common standards of protection, to international criminal law that spearheads efforts to end impunity for the most heinous atrocities. While legal processes are perceived to combat impunity, and despite the ready availability of the law, accountability often remains elusive. What if the law itself enables impunity? Law's Impunity asks this question in the context of the modern Private Military Company (PMC), examining the relationship between law and the concepts of responsibility and impunity. This book proposes that ordinary legal processes do not neutralise, but rather legalise impunity. This radical idea is applied to the abysmal record of human rights violations perpetrated by the modern PMC and the shocking absence of accountability. This book demonstrates how the law organises, rather than overcomes, impunity by detailing how the modern PMC exploits ordinary legal processes to systematically exclude itself from legal responsibility. Thus, Law's Impunity offers an alternative to conventional thinking about the law, providing an innovative approach to assess and refine the rigour of legal processes in the ongoing quest to end impunity.

The Law of Armed Conflict is usually understood to be a regime of exception that applies only during armed conflict and regulates hostilities among enemies. It assigns privileges to states far beyond what they are allowed to do in peacetime, and it mandates certain protections for non-combatants, which can often be defeated by appeals to military necessity or advantage. The Laws of War in International Thought examines the intellectual history of the laws of war before their codification. It reconstructs the processes by which political and legal theorists built the laws' distinctive vocabularies and legitimized some of their broadest permissions, and it situates these processes within the broader intellectual project that from early modernity spelled out the nature, function, and powers of state sovereignty. The book focuses on four historical moments in the intellectual history of the laws of war: the doctrine of just war in Spanish scholasticism; Hugo Grotius's theory of solemn war; the Enlightenment theory of regular war; and late nineteenth-century humanitarianism. By looking at these moments, Pablo Kalmanovitz shows how challenging and polemical it has been for international theorists to justify the exceptional and permissive character of the laws of war. In this way, he contributes to recover a sense of the historical foundations and many still problematic aspects of the Law of Armed Conflict.

This book seeks to refine our understanding of transitional justice and peacebuilding, and long-term security and reintegration challenges after violent conflicts. As recent events following political change during the so-called 'Arab Spring' demonstrate, demands for accountability often follow or attend conflict and political transition. While traditionally much literature and many practitioners highlighted tensions between peacebuilding and justice, recent research and practice demonstrates a turn away from the supposed 'peace vs justice' dilemma. This volume examines the complex relationship between peacebuilding and transitional justice through the lenses of the increased emphasis on victim-centred approaches to justice and the widespread practices of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of excombatants. While recent volumes have sought to address either DDR or victim-centred approaches to justice, none has sought to make connections between the two, much less to place them in the larger context of the increasing linkages between transitional justice and peacebuilding. This book will be of great interest to students of transitional justice, peacebuilding, human rights, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR.

This book provides an in-depth examination of the judicial response at the internationalcriminal tribunals (ICTs) to the violation of procedural standards in thepre-trial phase of proceedings. It does so against the backdrop of the assumption thatcertain particularities of international criminal proceedings may warrant a differentapproach to the matter than at the national level. By reference to relevant human rights standards and to national criminal procedure,as well as to theoretical accounts of the judicial response to pre-trial procedural violations,this book assesses the ICTs' law and practice in this regard, thereby identifyingpoints of concern and making suggestions for improvement. In doing so, it considersthe most suitable rationale for responding to procedural violations committed in thepre-trial phase of international criminal proceedings and the merits of judicial discretionin this context, as well as the impact of certain particularities of such proceedingson the determination of how to address procedural violations. The book is intended for academics and practitioners in the field of (international)criminal law who want to gain a deeper understanding of the possible impact ofpre- trial procedural violations on criminal proceedings. Kelly Pitcher is Assistant Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at LeidenUniversity in The Netherlands.

Since after the Second World War, the crime of aggression is - along with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes - a "core crime" under international law. However, despite a formal recognition of aggression as a matter of international criminal law and the reinforcement of the international legal regulation of the use of force by States, numerous international armed conflicts occurred but no one was ever prosecuted for aggression since 1949. This book comprehensively analyses the historical development of the criminalisation of aggression, scrutinises in a detailed manner the relevant jurisprudence of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals as well as of the Nuremberg follow-up trials, and makes proposals for a more successful prosecution for aggression in the future. In identifying customary international law on the subject, the volume draws upon a wealth of applicable sources of national criminal law and puts forward a useful classification of States legislative approaches towards the criminalisation of aggression at the national level. It also offers a detailed analysis of the current international legal regulation of the use of force and of the Rome Statutes substantive and procedural provisions pertaining to the exercise of the International Criminal Courts jurisdiction with respect to the crime of aggression, after 1 January 2017."

Relief Chief is Mark Lowcock's behind-the-scenes account of his experience as the world's most senior humanitarian official-the UN Relief Chief. In his four years on the job, Lowcock coordinated the work of UN agencies, the Red Cross, and countless national and international humanitarian groups to save lives and protect the most vulnerable. Appointed in 2017, Lowcock was witness to the biggest explosion in humanitarian need in modern history. Wars, droughts, floods, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, and then the COVID-19 global pandemic put humanitarian agencies under unprecedented strain. Long-standing crises like those in Syria, Yemen, and the Sahel got worse. New ones arose, in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Venezuela, and elsewhere. Over his tenure, Lowcock raised record amounts of money to tackle these problems, but this was not enough to prevent humanitarian agencies from being overwhelmed by the emergencies they were asked to deal with, as Lowcock documents from a personal, inside perspective. Part memoir and part manifesto for reform, Relief Chief depicts the brutality, misery and inhumanity inflicted on innocent people in crises. Lowcock recounts what people he met in dozens of countries-especially women and children-shared with him about their plight and the help they needed. He warns that crises will continue to get worse without a renewed global effort to tackle their causes. But Relief Chief is also an uplifting story of lives saved and suffering reduced, and a detailed, practical agenda for solving crises faster and better in the future.

Following a review of international humanitarian and criminal law and a description of many unpunished massacres or genocides, this book opens up perspectives of remedy through national justice, truth and reconciliation commissions, and mainly international criminal justice. In June 1998, diplomats from all United Nations' countries met in Rome to draft the Statute of a permanent International Criminal Court, a daring innovation. Based on the precedents of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals and the War Crimes Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the new Court will judge individuals, not states, for grave violations of international humanitarian law.

This edited book examines the role of interpreting in conflict situations, bringing together studies from different international and intercultural contexts, with contributions from military personnel, humanitarian interpreters and activists as well as academics. The authors use case studies to compare relevant notions of interpreting in conflict-related scenarios such as: the positionality of the interpreter, the ethical, emotional and security implications of their work, the specific training needed to carry out work for military and humanitarian organizations, and the relations of power created between the different stakeholders. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of translation and interpreting, conflict and peace studies, as well as conflict resolution and management.