This timely new volume brings together experts on the laws of war from academia, the military, and the NGO community to examine the issues surrounding September 11th and its aftermath, which have raised fundamental challenges to the existing corpus of international humanitarian law. The book features a thoughtful overview and discussion of the extent to which "new wars" call for new laws. The authors analyze specific topics pertaining to this theme, including the definition of armed conflict, the identification of military objectives, the meaning and application of the principle of proportionality in contemporary conflicts, the legitimacy of "targeted killings," the treatment of individuals detained in non-traditional armed conflicts, and the contemporary application of the law of occupation. Specific highlights include: Lt. Col. William K. Lietzau, National Defense University and former Special Advisor to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense (DoD), on when to apply the law of war and when to apply a law enforcement paradigm; Yoram Dinstein, Stockton Professor of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College, on proportionality; Crimes of War website editor Anthony Dworkin on due process problems in the anti-terror campaign; Ken Watkin, Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, on targeting and assassination; and much more. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

This book comprises contributions by leading experts in the field of international humanitarian law on the subject of the categorisation or classification of armed conflict. It is divided into two sections: the first aims to provide the reader with a sound understanding of the legal questions surrounding the classification of hostilities and its consequences; the second includes ten case studies that examine practice in respect of classification. Understanding how classification operates in theory and practice is a precursor to identifying the relevant rules that govern parties to hostilities. With changing forms of armed conflict which may involve multi-national operations, transnational armed groups and organized criminal gangs, the need for clarity of the law is all-important. The case studies selected for analysis are Northern Ireland, DRC, Colombia, Afghanistan (from 2001), Gaza, South Ossetia, Iraq (from 2003), Lebanon (2006), the so-called war against Al-Qaeda, and future trends. The studies explore the legal consequences of classification particularly in respect of the use of force, detention in armed conflict, and the relationship between human rights law and international humanitarian law. The practice identified in the case studies allows the final chapter to draw conclusions as to the state of the law on classification.

Examines the difficulties in applying international law to recent armed conflicts known as 'new wars'.

International law and armed conflict exist in a symbiotic relationship. In some cases, law shapes conflict proactively by imposing normative limits in advance of the appearance of proscribed conduct. Much more commonly, armed conflict either reveals lacunae in the law or demonstrates how law designed for yesterday's wars falls short when applied to contemporary conflict. When that happens, international law reacts by allowing provisions to fall into desuetude, embracing new interpretations of existing prescriptions, or generating new norms through practice or codification. In the 21st Century, both international security and armed conflict are the subject of arguably unprecedented sea changes. As a result, claims that both the" jus ad bellum" and "jus in bello" are unwieldy and ill-fitting in the context of modern hostilities have surfaced prominently. Whether one agrees with such dire assessments, what has become clear is that armed conflict is increasingly exposing faultlines in the law governing the resort to force. The intent of this collection of essays in honour of Professor Yoram Dinstein on the occasion of his 70th birthday is to explore such faultlines, first by identifying them and then by assessing their consequences. In a sense, then, the essays, contributed by the top minds in the field, will serve to assist academics and practitioners to anticipate pressure on the law governing armed conflict and, to the extent possible, react accordingly. Paralleling Professor Dinstein's classic works - "War, Aggression, and Self-Defence and The Conduct of Hostilities Under the Law of International Armed Conflict "? the book addresses both "ius ad bellum" and "ius in bello" topics.

This book features the contributions of a distinguished group of experts in the field of the law of armed conflicts that gathered in Berlin in June 2005. The goal of the colloquium, which marked the 70th birthday of Knut Ipsen, was to find operable solutions for problems and challenges that confront the contemporary law of armed conflict.

International Law and New Wars examines how international law fails to address the contemporary experience of what are known as 'new wars' - instances of armed conflict and violence in places such as Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. International law, largely constructed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rests to a great extent on the outmoded concept of war drawn from European experience - inter-state clashes involving battles between regular and identifiable armed forces. The book shows how different approaches are associated with different interpretations of international law, and, in some cases, this has dangerously weakened the legal restraints on war established after 1945. It puts forward a practical case for what it defines as second generation human security and the implications this carries for international law.