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A History of the Laws of War: Volume 1 - The Customs and Laws of War with Regards to Combatants and Captives (Hardcover, New)
Loot Price: R3,213
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A History of the Laws of War: Volume 1 - The Customs and Laws of War with Regards to Combatants and Captives (Hardcover, New)
Expected to ship within 12 - 19 working days
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This unique new work of reference traces the origins of the modern
laws of warfare from the earliest times to the present day. Relying
on written records from as far back as 2400 BCE, and using sources
ranging from the Bible to Security Council Resolutions, the author
pieces together the history of a subject which is almost as old as
civilisation itself. The author shows that as long as humanity has
been waging wars it has also been trying to find ways of
legitimising different forms of combatants and regulating the
treatment of captives. This first book on warfare deals with the
broad question of whether the patterns of dealing with combatants
and captives have changed over the last 5,000 years, and if so,
how? In terms of context, the first part of the book is about
combatants and those who can 'lawfully' take part in combat. In
many regards, this part of the first volume is a series of 'less
than ideal' pathways. This is because in an ideal world there would
be no combatants because there would be no fighting. Yet as a
species we do not live in such a place or even anywhere near it,
either historically or in contemporary times. This being so, a
second-best alternative has been to attempt to control the size of
military forces and, therefore, the bloodshed. This is also not the
case by which humanity has worked over the previous centuries.
Rather, the clear assumption for thousands of years has been that
authorities are allowed to build the size of their armed forces as
large as they wish. The restraints that have been applied are in
terms of the quality and methods by which combatants are taken. The
considerations pertain to questions of biology such as age and sex,
geographical considerations such as nationality, and the multiple
nuances of informal or formal combatants. These questions have also
overlapped with ones of compulsion and whether citizens within a
country can be compelled to fight without their consent.
Accordingly, for the previous 3,000 years, the question has not
been whether there should be a limit on the number of soldiers, but
rather who is or is not a lawful combatant. It has rarely been a
question of numbers. It has been, and remains, one of type. The
second part of this book is about people, typically combatants,
captured in battle. It is about what happens to their status as
prisoners, about the possibilities of torture, assistance if they
are wounded and what happens to their remains should they be killed
and their bodies fall into enemy hands. The theme that ties all of
these considerations together is that all of the acts befall those
who are, to one degree or another, captives of their enemies. As
such, they are no longer masters of their own fate. As a work of
reference this first volume, as part of a set of three, is
unrivalled, and will be of immense benefit to scholars and
practitioners researching and advising on the laws of warfare. It
also tells a story which throws fascinating new light on the
history of international law and on the history of warfare itself.
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