What is it about?
The law governing the use of force says why force may be used. The law of armed conflict ( a.k.a. LOAC or IHL) says how force may used and who and what may be targeted. While the two bodies of law are completely separate, that doesn't mean that they cannot influence each other. This article discusses some of the ways the law governing the use of force can influence who what and where someone or something may be targeted. While a specific person or object may well be a legitimate target under LOAC, this doesn't automatically mean that the person or object may be targeted under international law.
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Why is it important?
Comparatively little has been written on this topic since it was first explored by Christopher Greenwood ( former judge on the ICJ) back in the aftermath of the Falklands War of the 1980s. The topic is probably more important now than it was then because of the different ways warfare have developed and the increased reliance on self-defence in response to attacks by non-State armed groups.
Perspectives
The piece is part of an ongoing attempt by various authors, including myself, to try and make some sense of the current legal landscape and counteract -at least to some extent- the tendency toward increasing fragmentation and tunnel vision in international law.
Terry Gill
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Some Considerations Concerning the Role of the Ius ad Bellum in Targeting, November 2015, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-6265-072-5_5.
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