International Humanitarian Law (LAWS0278)

An in-depth examination of international humanitarian law and the interaction between IHL and other relevant international law regimes (including human rights and terrorism suppression).

International Humanitarian Law (‘IHL’) is an intellectually interesting set of contradictions. It is a body of law which is premised on and accepts the existence of armed conflict – together with climate change, the most destructive anthropogenic force to affect human life and the natural environment on which human life depends. And yet, IHL is a body of law committed to the protection of these interests. IHL seeks to protect vulnerable individuals in armed conflict contexts, and yet it responds to and accounts for the security interests of States which are not always compatible with individual interests. It is, perhaps uniquely in international law, a body of law which attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable. And it does so on the basis of an imperfect balance between protective humanitarian aims and the dictates of military necessity. 

We will explore these contradictions, and the reconciliation of the irreconcilable, through the core distinctions in IHL – in particular international/non‐international armed conflicts; combatants/civilians/‘unlawful combatants’; and military objectives/civilian objects.  

We will then explore the rules which protect both participants in and innocent victims of armed conflict and the rules which regulate the conduct of hostilities, including targetability and proportionality. These will be studied both as a matter of principle, and as a matter of practice (which includes a targeting exercise).   

Finally, we will study several sets of regime interaction which increasingly inform, constrain, and have the potential to reshape the practice of IHL. The regime interactions we explore shift each year, in response to current events and the ‘issues of the day’, and may include that between International Human Rights Law (‘IHRL’) and IHL, International Criminal Law (‘ICL’) and IHL, the international terrorism suppression regime and IHL, international investment law and IHL or international environmental law and IHL. 

Module syllabus 

• Introduction to IHL: General Concepts and History 

• Classification of Armed Conflicts and Commencement/Termination of Hostilities 

• Status Based Rules: Combatants, civilians, ‘DPH’ and targeted killings, POWs and other Protected Persons 

• Rules Governing Hostilities: Military Objectives, Civilians and the Principle of Proportionality 

• Non‐International Armed Conflicts 

• Regime Interactions between IHL and other relevant regimes of international law, which may include IHRL & IHL; ICL & IHL; Terrorism Suppression & IHL; international investment law & IHL or international environmental law & IHL  

Recommended materials 

Module reading lists and other module materials will be provided via online module pages, available at the beginning of term once students have enrolled. 

Preliminary reading 

This is a graduate level international law course. Students who have not taken a module in Public International Law (‘PIL’), or who have not done so for a considerable amount of time, are strongly advised to read a general PIL textbook in advance of commencing the course. An understanding of the doctrine of sources in international law (including familiarity with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties) and the law of State responsibility is assumed.  

Key information