Perspectives on the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law

Cambridge University Press, 10/18/2007
EAN 9780521882903, ISBN10: 0521882907

Hardcover, 466 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English

The International Committee of the Red Cross's study of Customary International Humanitarian Law by Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck (Cambridge, 2005) contains a unique collection of evidence of the practice of States and non-State actors in the field of international humanitarian law, together with the authors' assessment of that practice and their compilation of rules of customary law based on that assessment. The study invites comment on its compilation of rules. Perspectives on the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law results from a year-long examination of the study by a group of military lawyers, academics and practitioners, all with experience in international humanitarian law. The book discusses the study, its methodology and its rules and provides a critical analysis of them. It adds its own contribution to scholarship on the interpretation and application of international humanitarian law.

Part I. Setting the Scene - Theoretical Perspectives on International Law in the ICRC Study
1. The methodological framework of the study Daniel Bethlehem
2. The approach to customary international law in the study Iain Scobbie
3. Other areas of customary law in relation to the study Françoise Hampson
Part II. Status of Conflict and Combatants - The ICRC Study
4. Status of conflict Jelena Pejic
5. Combatant status Anthony Rogers
Part III. Commentary on Selected Rules from the ICRC study
6. Targeting Michael Schmitt
7. Protected persons and objects Susan C. Breau
8. Environment Karen Hulme
9. Methods of warfare William J. Fenrick
10. Weapons of warfare Steven Haines
11. Fundamental guarantees Françoise Hampson
12. Prisoner of war status Agnieszka Jachec-Neale
13. Displacement and displaced persons Ryszard Piotrowicz
14. Implementation and compliance David Turns
15. War crimes Charles Garraway
Part IV. Conclusions
16. Conclusions Elizabeth Wilmshurst.

Review of the hardback: '... a wonderful contribution to the discussion of and the verification of customary international humanitarian law. ... The book is recommended to practitioners, such as legal advisors to the armed forces and to peace operations and staff of the ICRC, academics working in the area of international humanitarian law, and everyone who is interested in the debate about (customary) international humanitarian law. As the ICRC Study is the basis for the discussion in this publication, the reader should have some basic knowledge about international humanitarian law and the ICRC Study, although the book is well readable because of its understandable writing and numerous examples and the authors illustrate some of the fundamental legal aspects to the reader by also extracting and explaining the profound questions.' The Military Law and the Law of War Review