Animals are the unknown victims of armed conflicts. Wildlife populations usually decline during warfare, with disastrous repercussions on the food chain, on fragile ecosystems and precarious habitats. Belligerents take advantage of the chaos of war for poaching and trafficking of animal products. Livestock, companion, and zoo animals, highly dependent on human care, are direct victims of hostilities. The book is the first legal analysis of these issues. It maps the framework of international humanitarian law, examining which and how the concepts, principles, and rationales can be applied and adapted for a better protection of animals. The contributions inter alia discuss precautions for animal civilians, problems of animal combatants and prisoners, a specific status for veterinarian personnel, the recognition of biodiversity hotspots as specially protected zones, and the potential of enforcement mechanisms. The concluding chapter draws together novel interpretations and reform proposals.

Presently, many of the greatest debates and controversies in international criminal law concern modes of liability for international crimes. The state of the law is unclear, to the detriment of accountability for major crimes and of the uniformity of international criminal law. The present book aims at clarifying the state of the law and provides a thorough analysis of the jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals, as well as of the debates and the questions these debates have left open. Renowned international criminal law scholars analyze, in discrete chapters, the modes of liability one by one; for each mode they identify the main trends in the jurisprudence and the main points of controversy. An introduction addresses the cross-cutting issues, and a conclusion anticipates possible evolutions that we may see in the future. The research on which this book is based was undertaken with the Geneva Academy.