International Humanitarian Law - LAWS3181

Description

Recommended Prior Knowledge

Course Objectives

• Have a sound understanding of the development, scope, principles, and main rules of international humanitarian law
• Understand the relationship between international humanitarian law and related areas of municipal and international law
• Understand the process by which principles and rules of international humanitarian law continue to develop
• Be familiar with the role that governments and various institutions play in the implementation and enforcement of IHL, as well as the institutional framework established by the Red Cross Movement and States in relation to armed conflict and humanitarian issues generally
• Be able to examine critically current developments in relation to IHL, and the policy challenges involved
• Be familiar with critical perspectives on the role these norms and institutions play in relation to the interests of the victims of armed conflict and principles of military necessity
• Be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the IHL regime as it now stands

Main Topics

• The position of international humanitarian law within public international law
• The relationship between rules related to the right to use force and international humanitarian law
• The historical development of related international legal norms
• The principles determining the rules applicable in different conflict situations, or issues of classification of conflicts
• Rules related to the protection of persons during armed conflict, as well as situations of violence not amounting to armed conflict
• Rules and principles regarding the means and methods of warfare, including weapons issues
• The relationship between international humanitarian law, concepts of human rights, and international human rights law
• Implementation and enforcement of international humanitarian law, including a brief overview of the international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as national enforcement of international humanitarian law
• Challenges and potential new directions for international humanitarian law, including issues raised by terrorism
• The role of the ICRC and the Red Cross Movement in armed conflict, and the work of governments, other international organisations and NGOs

Assessment

• Class participation - 10%
• Mid-Semester Assignment Option - 30%
• Research essay or final exam- 60%

Course Texts

• The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 (ICRC) (refer to Course Outline for details on how to obtain these materials).
• Refer to course outline

• Y Dinstein, The Conduct of Hostilities under the Law of International Armed Conflict (2010, 2nd edition, CUP)
• F Kalshoven and L Zegveld, Constraints on the Waging of War (ICRC, Geneva, 2001)
• D Fleck (ed), The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008)
• J-M Henckaerts and L Doswald-Beck (eds), Customary International Humanitarian Law: Volume I: Rules (CUP, Cambridge, 2005) (paperback)
• LC Green, The Contemporary Law of Armed Conflict (3rd edn, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2008)

Resources