Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

International Humanitarian Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

U.S. Naval War College

2015

Armed groups

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in International Humanitarian Law

The Combatant Status Of The “Little Green Men” And Other Participants In The Ukraine Conflict, Shane R. Reeves, David Wallace Jun 2015

The Combatant Status Of The “Little Green Men” And Other Participants In The Ukraine Conflict, Shane R. Reeves, David Wallace

International Law Studies

As an occupation and a civil war are simultaneously taking place in Ukraine a particularly vexing international law question is presented: what is the legal status of those involved in the hostilities? This article is designed to answer that question and to identify the associated rights, duties and responsibilities of the participants in the conflict.


State Opinio Juris And International Humanitarian Law Pluralism, Michael N. Schmitt, Sean Watts May 2015

State Opinio Juris And International Humanitarian Law Pluralism, Michael N. Schmitt, Sean Watts

International Law Studies

International humanitarian law has developed through a pluralistic process. Its history reveals a pattern of rough proportionality between State opinio juris and non-State expressions of law. These diverse sources have maintained a respectable yet realistic balance between humanity and military necessity. However, current IHL dialogue presents a stark contrast to the vibrant and pluralistic exchanges of the past. The substantive input of non-State actors such as non-governmental organizations, tribunals, and scholars far outpaces the work of States. Parity of input, especially in quantitative terms, is surely too much to demand and surely not necessary given the special status of State …


The Doctrine Of Legitimate Defense, Jens Ohlin Mar 2015

The Doctrine Of Legitimate Defense, Jens Ohlin

International Law Studies

The following article reorients mainstream conceptions of self-defense by defending a broader doctrine of legitimate defense that, in limited circumstances, justifies unilateral intervention. The source of the doctrine is natural law, which was explicitly incorporated into the text of UN Charter Article 51. The effect of this incorporation was to preserve, as a carve-out from the prohibition against force in Article 2, the natural law rights of defensive force. Specifically, the Article concludes that defensive force under natural law included, in extreme situations, a right of intervention in rogue States that refused to comply with natural law.


Is There A Way Out Of The Non-International Armed Conflict Detention Dilemma?, Gabor Rona Feb 2015

Is There A Way Out Of The Non-International Armed Conflict Detention Dilemma?, Gabor Rona

International Law Studies

Detention in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs, or wars fought between States and non-State armed groups) is a time-honored military and humanitarian necessity. And yet, the principles of sovereignty, the texts of the law of armed conflict and international human rights law and the historical record leave little doubt: international law recognizes no inherent detention power in such wars. As long as NIACs were purely internal civil wars, there was little basis to question the exclusive role of domestic law in regulating detention of the enemy. With the advent of transnational NIACs, such as the war in Afghanistan involving multi-national forces …


Targeting And Detention In Non-International Armed Conflict: Serdar Mohammed And The Limits Of Human Rights Convergence, Aurel Sari, Sean Aughey Feb 2015

Targeting And Detention In Non-International Armed Conflict: Serdar Mohammed And The Limits Of Human Rights Convergence, Aurel Sari, Sean Aughey

International Law Studies

In recent years, the United Kingdom has seen a steady flow of legal challenges arising out of its involvement in the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Among these, the case of Serdar Mohammed, decided by the English High Court in May 2014, is of particular interest because of its wider implications. In essence, the High Court’s judgment in Mohammed questions the existence of a legal basis under the law of armed conflict for the conduct of status-based operations in non-international armed conflicts. This article demonstrates that the restrictive approach adopted by the High Court in Mohammed is mistaken as …