The Rules Governing the Conduct of Hostilities in Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949: A Review of Relevant United States References

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Unlike 171 other nations, the United States is not a party to Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (hereinafter AP I). AP I complements and expands upon the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It is comprised of supplemental rules governing means and methods of warfare, combatant and prisoner of war status, treatment of detainees, and protections of civilians and civilian objects among other important matters within the law of armed conflict. The decision of the United States not to join AP I has resulted in what one prominent commentator describes as a “Great Schism” between the majority of nations bound by its provision and a “determined minority” who are not.