Providing a critical introduction to the notion of humanitarianism in global politics, tracing the concept from its origins to the twenty-first century, this book examines how the so called international community works in response to humanitarian crises and the systems that bind and divide them. By tracing the history on international humanitarian action from its early roots through the birth of the Red Cross to the beginning of the UN, Peter Walker and Daniel G. Maxwell examine the challenges humanitarian agencies face, from working alongside armies and terrorists to witnessing genocide. They argue that humanitarianism has a vital future, but only if those practicing it choose to make it so. Topics covered include: the rise in humanitarian action as a political tool the growing call for accountability of agencies the switch of NGOs from bit players to major trans-national actors the conflict between political action and humanitarian action when it comes to addressing causes as well as symptoms of crisis. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in international human rights law, disaster management and international relations.

International Law and Infectious Diseases is the first comprehensive analysis of the intersection between international law and infectious diseases. Infectious diseases pose a global threat, and international law plays an important but under-explored role in infectious disease control. The book analyses the globalization of public health; and it examines the history of international law in this area, the International Health Regulations, and international law on trade, human rights, armed conflict and arms control, and the environment. Fidler develops the concepts of microbialpolitik and global health jurisprudence to provide a political perspective and a framework for future legal action. The aim of this series of monographs is to publish important and original pieces of research on all aspects of public international law. Topics that are given particular prominence are those, which, while of interest to the academic lawyer, also have important bearing on issues which, touch the actual conduct of international relations. None the less the series is wide in scope and includes monographs on the history and philosophical foundations of international law.

This dispassionate analysis of the legal implications of non-international armed conflicts explores the rules regulating the conduct of internal hostilities, as well as the consequences of intervention by foreign States, the role of the UN Security Council, the effects of recognition, State responsibility for wrongdoing by both Governments and insurgents, the interface with the law of human rights and the notion of war crimes. The author addresses both conceptual and specific issues, such as the complexities of 'failing' States or the recruitment and use of child soldiers. He makes use of the extensive case law of international courts and tribunals, in order to identify and set out customary international law. Much attention is also given to the contents of available treaty texts. This new updated edition takes into account the latest events in terms of the practice of States, judicial pronouncements and UN Security Council resolutions.

In managing the growing number of refugees arriving in the industrialised world, beginning at the end of the 1970s, States have devised increasingly restrictive policies. The objectives of these measures have been to restrict access to the territory or, at least, to asylum procedures. Thus, while international co-operation in the refugee field traditionally focused on protection and assistance, the last two decades have been characterised by the emergence of transnational policies aimed at containing refugee flows, primarily on the European continent. The convoluted refugee routes - often described as 'secondary' or 'irregular' movements of refugees between countries of origin and their final destination - have been among States' major preoccupations. To combat what they often perceive to be proof of the fraudulent or manifestly unfounded nature of asylum claims, European States have passed legislation or agreed on international instruments designed to allocate and even evade responsibility for the examination of asylum applications. Even bolder solutions have been advocated more recently, such as the outsourcing of asylum procedures through regional or offshore schemes. This book presents a critical legal analysis of the mechanisms and arrangements devised by States to tackle secondary movements of refugees, and offers innovative solutions to the protection crisis afflicting the global refugee regime. After providing a comprehensive breakdown of the various legal tools used by States to combat secondary refugee movements, the book argues that, while the legality of these various arrangements is seriously in doubt, the most appropriate way to address these protection failures is to strengthen and develop adequate international accountability mechanisms.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have had to deal with a completely new set of legislative and policy challenges relating to migration. This book reviews current and expected migration trends in Central and Eastern Europe, including trends in labour migration, transit migration, trafficking and migrant smuggling. It considers how EU enlargement eastwards is likely to affect international migration in Europe. It also examines how much progress the Central and Eastern European countries have made in aligning their migration legislation and migration policies with EU practice. The book concludes that virtually all the candidate countries appear to be on track as far as legislative developments are concerned, but few countries have seriously and systematically examined the question of what kind of migration policy they wish to develop in the future. Published in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration, Geneva, Switzerland, and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, Vienna, Austria

Why is it that soldiers may be killed in war but civilians may not be killed? By tracing the evolution of the principle of non-combatant immunity in Western thought from its medieval religious origins to its modern legal status, Colm McKeogh attempts to answer this question. In doing so he highlights the unsuccessful attempts to reconcile warfare with our civilization's most fundamental principles of justice.

This book, now fully updated and in its third edition, explains the law relating to the conduct of hostilities and provides guidance on difficult or controversial aspects of the law. It covers who or what may legitimately be attacked and what precautions must be taken to protect civilians, cultural property or the natural environment. It deals with the responsibility of commanders and how the law is enforced. There are also chapters on internal armed conflicts and the security aspects of belligerent occupation. -- .

Traditions of War brings together developments in political and legal thought, the conduct of military occupations, and the attempts by the international community to regulate the treatment of civilians within this aspect of warfare.

The past two decades have witnessed the rapid proliferation of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in armed conflicts around the world, with PMSCs participating in, for example, offensive combat, prisoner interrogation and the provision of advice and training. The extensive outsourcing of military and security activities has challenged conventional conceptions of the state as the primary holder of coercive power and raised concerns about the reduction in state control over the use of violence. Hannah Tonkin critically analyses the international obligations on three key states - the hiring state, the home state and the host state of a PMSC - and identifies the circumstances in which PMSC misconduct may give rise to state responsibility. This analysis will facilitate the assessment of state responsibility in cases of PMSC misconduct and set standards to guide states in developing their domestic laws and policies on private security.

Between War and Politics is the first book length study of war in the thought of one of the twentieth-century's most important and original political thinkers. Hannah Arendt's writing was fundamentally rooted in her understanding of war and its political significance. But this element of her work has surprisingly been neglected in international and political theory.
This book fills an important gap by assessing the full range of Arendt's historical and conceptual writing on war and introduces to international theory the distinct language she used to talk about war and the political world. It builds on her re-thinking of old concepts such as power, violence, greatness, world, imperialism, evil, hypocrisy and humanity and introduces some that are new to international thought like plurality, action, agonism, natality and political immortality. The issues that Arendt dealt with throughout her life and work continue to shape the political world and her approach to political thinking remains a source of inspiration for those in search of guidance not in what to think but how to think about politics and war. Re-reading Arendt's writing, forged through firsthand experience of occupation and struggles for liberation, political founding and resistance in time of war, reveals a more serious engagement with war than her earlier readers have recognized. Arendt's political theory makes more sense when it is understood in the context of her thinking about war and we can think about the history and theory of warfare, and international politics, in new ways by thinking with Arendt.
This book is a project of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.

Tallinn Manual 2.0 expands on the highly influential first edition by extending its coverage of the international law governing cyber operations to peacetime legal regimes. The product of a three-year follow-on project by a new group of twenty renowned international law experts, it addresses such topics as sovereignty, state responsibility, human rights, and the law of air, space, and the sea. Tallinn Manual 2.0 identifies 154 'black letter' rules governing cyber operations and provides extensive commentary on each rule. Although Tallinn Manual 2.0 represents the views of the experts in their personal capacity, the project benefitted from the unofficial input of many states and over fifty peer reviewers.

This is the first book to provide an inside account of how a United Nations human rights treaty body actually works. At the same time it is an introduction to the international law of racial discrimination. The book focuses on the practical operation and implementation of the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, emphasising throughout the relationship between the law and politics. The book takes account of current issues in international race relations - from the process of dismantling apartheid in South Africa to recent horrors and genocides in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Michael Banton's latest work will be crucial reading for anyone interested in eliminating racial discrimination on an international level. About Michael Banton: Michael Banton is Chairman of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 1996-98.

The accountability of armed non-state actors is a neglected field of international law, overtaken by the regimes of state responsibility and individual criminal accountability as well as fears of legitimacy. Yet armed non-state actors are important players in the international arena and their activities have significant repercussions. This book focuses on their obligations and accountability when they do not function as state agents, regardless of the existence or extent of accountability of their individual members. The author claims that their distinct features lead to their classification into three different types: de facto entities, armed non-state actors in control of territory, and common article 3 armed non-state actors. The mechanisms that trigger the applicability of humanitarian and human rights law regimes are examined in detail as well as the framework of obligations. In both cases, the author argues that armed non-state actors should not be treated as entering international law and process exclusively through the state. The study concludes by focussing on their accountability in international humanitarian and human rights law and, more specifically, to the rules of attribution, remedies and reparations for violations of their primary obligations.

International trusteeship and the civilizing mission never ended with the self-determination entitlement that led to decolonization in the second half of the 20th century. International organizations, whose modern form emerged during the height of colonialism, took on this role in the "post-colonial" era, internationalizing trusteeship and re-legitimizing it as a feature of international public policy into the bargain. Through analysis of the history of and purposes associated with the involvement of international organizations in territorial administration, such as the recent UN missions in Kosovo and East Timor, a comparison between this activity and colonial trusteeship, the Mandates and Trusteeship arrangements, and an exploration of the modern ideas of international law and public policy that underpin and legitimize contemporary interventions, this book relates a new history of the concept of international trusteeship.
From British colonialist Lord Lugard's "dual mandate" to the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Lord Ashdown's "state-building" agenda, wide-ranging links between the complex peace operations of today and the civilizing mission of the colonial era are established, offering a historical, political and legal framework within which the legitimacy of and challenges faced by complex interventions can be appraised. This new history of international trusteeship raises important questions about the role of international law and organizations in facilitating relations of domination and tutelage, and necessitates a re-evaluation of the current significance of the self-determination entitlement.

The Syrian war has been an example of the abuse and insufficient delivery of humanitarian assistance. According to international practice, humanitarian aid should be channelled through a state government that bears a particular responsibility for its population. Yet in Syria, the bulk of relief went through Damascus while the regime caused the vast majority of civilian deaths. Should the UN have severed its cooperation with the government and neglected its humanitarian duty to help all people in need? Decision-makers face these tough policy dilemmas, and often the "neutrality trap" snaps shut. This book discusses the political and moral considerations of how to respond to a brutal and complex crisis while adhering to international law and practice. The author, a scholar and senior diplomat involved in the UN peace talks in Geneva, draws from first-hand diplomatic, practitioner and UN sources. He sheds light on the UN's credibility crisis and the wider implications for the development of international humanitarian and human rights law. This includes covering the key questions asked by Western diplomats, NGOs and international organizations, such as: Why did the UN not confront the Syrian government more boldly? Was it not only legally correct but also morally justifiable to deliver humanitarian aid to regime areas where rockets were launched and warplanes started? Why was it so difficult to render cross-border aid possible where it was badly needed? The meticulous account of current international practice is both insightful and disturbing. It tackles the painful lessons learnt and provides recommendations for future challenges where politics fails and humanitarians fill the moral void.

Beginning in late 1945, the United States, Britain, China, Australia, France, the Netherlands, and later the Philippines, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China convened national courts to prosecute Japanese military personnel for war crimes. The defendants included ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese who had served with the armed forces as Japanese subjects. In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East tried Japanese leaders. While the fairness of these trials has been a focus for decades, Japanese War Criminals instead argues that the most important issues arose outside the courtroom. What was the legal basis for identifying and detaining subjects, determining who should be prosecuted, collecting evidence, and granting clemency after conviction? The answers to these questions helped set the norms for transitional justice in the postwar era and today contribute to strategies for addressing problematic areas of international law. Examining the complex moral, ethical, legal, and political issues surrounding the Allied prosecution project, from the first investigations during the war to the final release of prisoners in 1958, Japanese War Criminals shows how a simple effort to punish the guilty evolved into a multidimensional struggle that muddied the assignment of criminal responsibility for war crimes. Over time, indignation in Japan over Allied military actions, particularly the deployment of the atomic bombs, eclipsed anger over Japanese atrocities, and, among the Western powers, new Cold War imperatives took hold. This book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the construction of the postwar international order in Asia and to our comprehension of the difficulties of implementing transitional justice.

The United Nations estimates that four billion people worldwide live outside the protection of the law. These people can be driven from their land, intimidated by violence, and excluded from society. This book is about community paralegals - sometimes called barefoot lawyers - who demystify law and empower people to advocate for themselves. These paralegals date back to 1950s South Africa and are active today in many countries, but their role has largely been ignored by researchers. Community Paralegals and the Pursuit of Justice is the first book on the subject. Focusing on paralegal movements in six countries, Vivek Maru, Varun Gauri, and their coauthors have collected rich, vivid stories of paralegals helping people to take on injustice, from domestic violence to unlawful mining to denial of wages. From these stories emerges evidence of what works and how. The insights in the book will be of immense value in the global fight for universal justice. This title is also available as Open Access.

Hilaire McCoubrey wrote extensively in the area of armed conflict law, and on the issues of collective security law and the law relating to arms control. Although he died at the early age of 46 in 2000 he had contributed significantly to the separate study of these areas, but also to the idea of studying the issues as a whole subject. The collection covers difficult and controversial issues in the area of conflict and security law. The contributors, drawn both from academe and practice, provide expert analysis of many aspects of the law governing armed conflict and collective security. As well as providing a fitting tribute to the main aspects of Hilaire's contribution to knowledge, the volume provides a coherent reconsideration and development of key aspects of conflict and security law at a time when that law is being applied, breached, debated or reformed on almost a daily basis.

This book provides an insight into the issue of health inequity brought about by the violent conflict in Northeast India. While examining the deep vulnerabilities and loss of well-being suffered by families displaced by conflict in the Indo-Bhutan borderland region, the authors raise fundamental questions of accountability and the role of various stakeholders in providing humanitarian assistance to those affected by the conflict. It highlights for the reader the role played by conflict and armed violence in dismantling a functioning public health system and delineates the long-term barriers to post-conflict recovery. The book is written by those who have worked in implementing development and peacebuilding programs in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) of Western Assam. The book especially brings to the fore the voices of those communities directly affected by conflict in Bodoland. The book is valuable to researchers, development practioners and policy makers. Given the unique format of the book, which includes a number of case studies, it is particularly useful for students of development, public health and allied disciplines such as international relations as well as peace and conflict studies.

The accountability of armed non-state actors is a neglected field of international law, overtaken by the regimes of state responsibility and individual criminal accountability as well as fears of legitimacy. Yet armed non-state actors are important players in the international arena and their activities have significant repercussions. This book focuses on their obligations and accountability when they do not function as state agents, regardless of the existence or extent of accountability of their individual members. The author claims that their distinct features lead to their classification into three different types: de facto entities, armed non-state actors in control of territory, and common article 3 armed non-state actors. The mechanisms that trigger the applicability of humanitarian and human rights law regimes are examined in detail as well as the framework of obligations. In both cases, the author argues that armed non-state actors should not be treated as entering international law and process exclusively through the state. The study concludes by focussing on their accountability in international humanitarian and human rights law and, more specifically, to the rules of attribution, remedies and reparations for violations of their primary obligations.

The humanitarian framing of disarmament is not a novel development, but rather represents a re-emergence of a much older and long-standing sensibility of humanitarianism in disarmament. The Book rejects the 'big bang' theory that presents the Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention 1997, and its successors - the Convention on Cluster Munitions 2008, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons 2017 - as a paradigm shift from an older traditional state-centric approach towards a more progressive humanitarian approach. It shows how humanitarian disarmament has a long and complex history, which includes these treaties. This book argues that the attempt to locate the birth of humanitarian disarmament in these treaties is part of the attempt to cleanse humanitarian disarmament of politics, presenting humanitarianism as a morally superior discourse in disarmament. However, humanitarianism carries its own blind spots and has its own hegemonic leanings. It may be silencing other potentially more transformative discourses.

This book critically examines the possible dilution of the neutrality principle of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in internal armed conflicts. It begins with the proposition that the intervention of ICRC in internal armed conflicts led to compromises in neutrality, and questioned the autonomy and independence of the organization. The book also argues that the field operations of the international humanitarian organizations during internal armed conflicts are dependent on the authority exercised by the state in whose territory the conflict persists. The ICRC's involvement in Sri Lanka and Sudan provides empirical support to validate these propositions and arguments. The cases also show that for the ICRC, it is hard to be neutral and impartial in situations of internal armed conflicts and such conflicts present formidable challenges to maintain its organization autonomy as well. The larger purpose of the book is to contribute to the policy re/formulation of the international humanitarian organizations in internal armed conflict, the most significant challenge in the field at present.

The act of fighting or being a fighter has certain consequences in international law. The most obvious example can be found in international humanitarian law, where a distinction is drawn between fighters and civilians, with fighters being military objectives and civilians being protected from attack. Another example is from international human rights law, where it has been held that the particular characteristics of military life have to be taken into account when interpreting the human rights of members of state armed forces. This volume focuses on the field of international criminal law and asks the question: what relevance does fighting have to victimhood in international criminal law? Among the topics which are explored are: how have international criminal courts and tribunals untangled lawful casualties of war from victims of war crimes? How have they determined who is a member of an organised armed group and who is not? What crimes can those who fight be victims of during hostilities? When does it become relevant in international criminal law that an alleged victim of a crime was a person hors de combat rather than a civilian? Can war crimes be committed against members of non-opposing forces? Can persons hors de combat be victims of crimes against humanity and genocide? What special considerations surround peacekeepers and child soldiers as victims of international crimes? The author carries out an in-depth exploration of case law from international criminal courts and tribunals to assess how they have dealt with these questions. She concludes that the import of fighting upon victimhood in the context of international criminal law has not always been appreciated to the extent it should have been.

Where contemporary developments have significantly altered the implementation methods of, and relationship between, human rights law and international humanitarian law, this timely book looks at the future challenges of protecting human rights during and after armed conflicts. Leading scholars use critical case studies to shed light on new approaches used by international courts and experts to balance these two bodies of law.