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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 February 2017
1 Reviewed at 79 AJIL 267 (1985).
2 Reviewed at 83 AJIL 186 (1989).
3 The subject of self-defense in international law is treated in detail in an article by Oscar Schachter, Self-Defense and the Rule of Law, 83 AJIL 259 (1989); see also M. Akehurst, A Modern Introduction to International Law 262 passim (1987) (for reason United States did not invoke a right of anticipatory self-defense to justify the “quarantine” imposed on Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis).
4 It is noteworthy that the principles contained in the 1945 four-power agreement were generally recognized as binding in international law by UN General Assembly Resolution 95 (I) (Dec. 11, 1946).
5 It is untenable to exemplify a soldier’s blind obedience to an unlawful order by Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac by God’s commandment as told in Gen. 22:1. At the time Genesis was compiled (10th-5th century b.c.), child sacrifice was a common religious custom. Furthermore, the Bible disapproves of human sacrifice (e.g., 2 Kings 3:27; Jer. 19:5; Ezek. 16:20). Christian theologians view the Abraham story in Genesis as an illustration of the willingness of God the Father to sacrifice his only son.
6 Cassese writes at 180 n.1:
In 1944, German troops commanded by Colonel Walter Reder massacred all the inhabitants of the small Italian village of Marzabotto … . Most of the 1,836 killed were women and children. The military action was carried out by way of reprisal for the attacks of partisans … . According to some eyewitness accounts, two members of the German troops refused to take part in the shooting of harmless civilians, and were executed by order of Colonel Reder.
7 Responsibility for breaches of humanitarian laws can go both ways. The subordinate may be responsible for having obeyed an illegal order, and the superior for not having taken steps to prevent breaches by the subordinate of the Geneva Conventions and supplementary Protocols (Art. 86, para. 2, and Art. 87, para. 2 of Protocol I, supplementing the 1949 Geneva Conventions). However, the United States has ratified neither Protocol I (ratified by 80 states) nor Protocol II (ratified by 71 states).