3.6.1. The Martens Clause

Anti-Personnel Mines under Humanitarian Law: A View From the Vanishing Point considers in depth the various customary and conventional legal regimes applicable to the use of anti-personnel mines. All involved with the global effort to control and eliminate anti-personnel mines as well as the policy-makers who are concerned about the devastation resulting from the widespread deployment of these arbitrary weapons need to familiarize themselves with the information presented in this timely volume. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

This book provides an examination of whether there is a legally independent 'principle of humanity' in international humanitarian law.

The twenty-first century global community is confronted with unprecedented challenges as well as unique opportunities. The degree to which it can establish and institutionalize norms and mechanisms designed to promote and sustain meaningful global cooperation will determine the future course of civilization. This volume brings together a broad range of scholars to highlight some of the areas of contemporary transnational cooperation and to examine the scope and levels at which cooperation can and does take place. The study examines the issue of weapons of mass destruction, explores the promises of biotechnology and space technology, and investigates the roles of global conventions and institutions as strategies for addressing the common threats facing the international system. In short, the volume raises important, timely issues regarding the challenges and opportunities confronting the global community which both policy makers and academicians will find informative and thought-provoking in their efforts to understand the nature and complexity of the twenty-first century global community.

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.

Drone strikes have become a key feature of counterterrorism operations in an increasing number of countries. This work explores the different domestic and international legal regimes that govern the manufacture, transfer, and use of armed drones. Chapters assess the legality of armed drones under jus ad bellum, the law of armed conflict, the law of law enforcement, international human rights law, international criminal law and domestic civil and criminal law. The book also discusses the application of law to fully autonomous weapons systems where computer algorithms decide who or what to target and when to fire.

The Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law provides a truly international forum for high-quality, peer-reviewed articles, commentaries on current developments, reports on state practice and documentation that have international humanitarian law as their focal point. The cosmopolitan character of the Yearbook is ensured by its international board of editors, drawn from outstanding experts in the field, as well as by its global network of correspondents, reporting on state practice. All aspects of international law applicable during international and internal armed conflicts are covered, in addition to interesting and significant developments in related fields, such as international criminal law, human rights law, disarmament law and refugee law. Distinguished by its topicality and contemporary relevance, the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law bridges the gap between theory and practice and serves as a useful reference tool for scholars, practitioners, military personnel, civil servants, diplomats, human rights workers and students.