Civility, Barbarism and the Evolution of International Humanitarian Law Who do the Laws of War Protect?
Book contents
- Civility, Barbarism, and the Evolution of International Humanitarian Law
- Civility, Barbarism, and the Evolution of International Humanitarian Law
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Sieges and the Laws of War in Europe’s Long Eighteenth Century
- 3 All’s Fair in Love and War or the Limits of the Limitations
- 4 Cultivating Humanitarianism
- 5 Limits to the Scope of Humanity as a Constraint on the Conduct of War
- 6 The State, Civility, and International Humanitarian Law
- 7 Operationalising Distinction in South Sudan
- 8 Private Military and Security Companies and International Humanitarian Law
- 9 Protecting Warfighters from Superfluous Injury and Unnecessary Suffering
- 10 Blurring the Lines
- 11 A Step Back to Take a Step Forward
- Index
- References
1 - Introduction
Civility, Barbarism, and the Evolution of International Humanitarian Law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2024
Book contents
- Civility, Barbarism, and the Evolution of International Humanitarian Law
- Civility, Barbarism, and the Evolution of International Humanitarian Law
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Sieges and the Laws of War in Europe’s Long Eighteenth Century
- 3 All’s Fair in Love and War or the Limits of the Limitations
- 4 Cultivating Humanitarianism
- 5 Limits to the Scope of Humanity as a Constraint on the Conduct of War
- 6 The State, Civility, and International Humanitarian Law
- 7 Operationalising Distinction in South Sudan
- 8 Private Military and Security Companies and International Humanitarian Law
- 9 Protecting Warfighters from Superfluous Injury and Unnecessary Suffering
- 10 Blurring the Lines
- 11 A Step Back to Take a Step Forward
- Index
- References
Summary
In appreciating the institutional perpetuity of war, while simultaneously acknowledging the historically informed, inherent limitations of attempts to bound its conduct by international law, this chapter introduces the three interrelated questions that serve as the organising themes of this volume: first, is there a historical continuity with legal protections in war being informed by notions of ‘civility’ and ‘barbarity’?; second, what is the relationship between the ideals and operational realities in international humanitarian law (IHL)?; and third, what are the limitations of international laws designed to restrain excess in war? Via a brief overview of the divergent evolutions of jus ad bellum and jus in bello law, this introductory chapter further explores the sub-themes present in this volume: universalism and its shortcomings; problems with punishing violations of IHL; and the degree to which modern laws of war legitimate activities that should otherwise be prohibited.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Civility, Barbarism and the Evolution of International Humanitarian LawWho do the Laws of War Protect?, pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
References
Best, G. (1980). Humanity in Warfare: The Modern History of the International Law of Armed Conflicts, London: Weidenfield & Nicolson.Google Scholar
Chinkin, C. and Kaldor, M. (2017). International Law and New Wars, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clausewitz, Carl Von. (1976). On War, trans. Howard, Michael and Paret, Peter, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Greenwood, C. (2008). Historical development and legal basis. In Fleck, D., ed., The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, J. and Posner, E. (2005). The Limits of International Law, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hathaway, O. and Shapiro, S. (2017). The Internationalist: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World, London: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
af Jochnick, C. and Normand, R. (1994). The legitimation of violence: A critical history of the laws of war. Harvard International Law Journal 35(1).Google Scholar
Kant, I. (1971). The metaphysics of morals. In Reiss, H., ed., Kant’s Political Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Killingsworth, M. (2016). From St Petersburg to Rome: Understanding the evolution of the modern laws of war. Australian Journal of Politics and History 62(1).Google Scholar
Kolb, R. (2013). The main epochs of modern international humanitarian law since 1864 and their related dominant legal constructions. In Mujezinović Larsen, K., Guldahl Cooper, C. and Nystuen, G., eds., Searching for a ‘Principle of Humanity’ in International Humanitarian Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kreβ, C. and Barriga, S. (2017). The Crime of Aggression: A Commentary, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Liivoja, R., Lens, K. and McCormack, T. (2016). Emerging technologies of warfare. In Liivoja, R. and McCormack, T., eds., Routledge Handbook of the Law of Armed Conflict, Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
McCoubrey, H. (1998). International Humanitarian War: Modern Developments in the Limitation of Warfare, Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Mégret, F. (2006). From ‘savages’ to ‘unlawful combatants’: A postcolonial look at international law’s ‘other’. In Orford, A., ed., International Law and Its Others, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Neff, S. (2005). War and the Law of Nations: A General History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obregon, L. (2012). The civilised and uncivilised. In Fassbender, B. and Peters, A., eds., The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C. (2015). International Law and the Great War, Clark, NJ: The Law Book Exchange.Google Scholar
Reus-Smit, C. (2004). Introduction. In Reus-Smit, C., ed., The Politics of International Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Solis, G. (2010). The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
United Nations General Assembly (2017). Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, available at http://undocs.org/A/CONF.229/2017/8.Google Scholar
de Vattel, E. (2008). The Law of Nations, or, The Principles of the Law of Nature, Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns, with Three Early Essays on the Origin and Nature of Natural Law and on Luxury, eds. Kapossy, Bela and Whatmore, Richard, Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar