Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T13:20:41.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

6 - Individual Battlefield Status

from LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW: A FRAMEWORK

Gary D. Solis
Affiliation:
United States Military Academy
Get access

Summary

Introduction

We have resolved, more or less, the first foundational question that a LOAC/IHL (law of armed conflict/international humanitarian law) student should answer regarding any armed conflict: What is the conflict status – what law of war, if any, applies in the armed conflict under examination? Now the second foundational question: What are the statuses of the participants in that conflict? For example, are all of them, or some of them, combatants, or are they unprivileged belligerents? Some of them or all of them? Are they civilians or insurgents? Prisoners of war (POWs) or retained personnel? A levée en masse or protected persons?

The first foundational question, status conflict, is critical because it determines if domestic law, limited LOAC or the entire spectrum of LOAC is in play. It is the difference between a criminal trial for murder in a domestic court and POW status with the protection of the combatant's privilege.

The second foundational question, the individual status of those on the battlefield, is just as significant. Individual status determines the rights and protections afforded a fighter, if captured, as well as the prohibitions that may apply to his/her conduct. If you are the officer-in-charge of a military unit ordered to parachute into, say, an African country that has requested U.S. training assistance, and several U.S. Army trainers have already been kidnapped and murdered by a splinter rebel group in the course of an internal rebellion, you know that you probably are going into a common Article 3 armed conflict in which Additional Protocol II probably does not apply – you know the LOAC that will apply on your battlefield.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Law of Armed Conflict
International Humanitarian Law in War
, pp. 186 - 249
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Pictet, Jean, ed., Commentary, IV Geneva Convention (Geneva: ICRC, 1958), 51
Dinstein, Yoram, The Conduct of Hostilities Under the Law of International Armed Conflict (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 27
Draper, Col. G.I.A.D., “Personnel and Issues of Status,” in Meyer, Michael A. and McCoubrey, Hilaire, eds., Reflections on Law and Armed Conflicts (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1998), 194, 197
Sandoz, Yves, Swinarski, Christophe, and Zimmerman, Bruno, eds., Commentary on the Additional Protocols (Geneva: ICRC/Martinus Nijhoff, 1987), 515
Rogers, Maj. Gen. A.P.V., Law on the Battlefield, 2d ed. (Huntington, NY: Juris, 2004), 9
Garraway, Charles H.B., “‘Combatants’ – Substance or Semantics?” in Schmitt, Michael N. and Pejic, Jelena, eds., International Law and Armed Conflict: Exploring the Faultlines (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2007), 317
Fleck, Dieter, ed., The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), para. 301, at 67
Sassòli, Marco and Olson, Laura M., “The Relationship Between International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law Where it Matters: Admissible Killing and Internment of Fighters in Non-international Armed Conflicts,” 871 Int'l Rev. of the Red Cross (Sept. 2008), 599, 605–6Google Scholar
Rosen, Jeffrey, “The Dissenter,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 23, 2007, 50 Google Scholar
,War Department, Rules of Land Warfare – 1914 (Washington: GPO, 1914), para. 60, at 27
Lauterpacht, H., ed., 1946 Annual Digest and Reports of Public International Law Cases (London: Butterworth, 1951), 300
Prugh, MG George S., Law at War: Vietnam 1964–1973 (Washington: Dept. of the Army, 1975), 66
Greenspan, Morris, The Modern Law of Land Warfare (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959), 57
,UK Ministry of Defence, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), para. 7.11.1., at 126
Pictet, Jean, ed., Commentary, I Geneva Convention (Geneva: ICRC, 1952), 221
Miller, David, Mercy Ships (London: Continuum, 2008)
Scutro, Andrew, “Mystery medical officer earned a Navy Cross he can't display,” Marine Corps Times, Nov. 10, 2008, 24 Google Scholar
Green, L.C., The Contemporary Law of Armed Conflict, 2d ed. (Manchester: Juris/Manchester University Press, 2000), 103
Weintraub, Stanley, Silent Night (New York: Free Press, 2001), 21
MacDonald, Charles B., United States Army in World War II: The European Theater of Operations; The Siegfried Line Campaign (Washington: Center of Military History, 2001), 371–2
Keegan, John discusses similar nonholiday truces in The Face of Battle (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1988), 239
Ryan, Cornelius, A Bridge Too Far (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974), 556–9
Gordon, Michael R. and Trainor, Lt. Gen. Bernard E., Cobra II (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006), 405–6
Pictet, Jean, Commentary, III Geneva Convention (Geneva: ICRC, 1960), 59
Parks, W. Hays, “Air War and the Law of War,” 32–1 Air Force L. R. (1990), 1, 84Google Scholar
Henckaerts, Jean-Marie and Doswald-Beck, Louise, eds., Customary International Humanitarian Law, vol. I, Rules (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), Rule 106, at 386
Whittle, Richard, “A Test, Not a Final Exam,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (Feb. 2008), 20, 21Google Scholar
Doswald-Beck, Louise, ed., San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 36, para. 142(a)
Brace, Ernest C., A Code to Keep (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988), 261
Rochester, Stuart I. and Kiley, Frederick, Honor Bound (Washington: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1998), 58, 64, 253, 283, 450, and 452
Urwin, Gregory J.W., Facing Fearful Odds (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), 528
Hough, Lt. Col. Frank O., Ludwig, Maj. Verle E., and Shaw, Henry I., History of Marine Corps Operations in World War II, vol. I, Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal (Washington: GPO, 1958), 132–43
Baker, Gary R., Cadets in Gray (Lexington, SC: Palmetto Bookworks, 1990), 134–52
Andrew, Jr. Rod, Long Gray Lines: The Southern Military School Tradition, 1839–1915 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 30–1
Baxter, Major Richard R., “So-Called ‘Unprivileged Belligerency’: Spies, Guerrillas, and Saboteurs,” 28 BYIL (1951), 335 Google Scholar
Schwirtz, Michael and Kramer, Andrew E., “Russian Forces Capture Military Base in Georgia,” NY Times, Aug. 12, 2008, A8 Google Scholar
Kulish, Nicholas and Schwirtz, Michael, “Sons Missing in Action, If Indeed They Found It,” NY Times, Aug. 12, 2008, A10 Google Scholar
Schwirtz, Michael, “2 Georgians Went to War But Never Got to Fight,” NY Times, Sept. 2, 2008, A8 Google Scholar
Prince, Cathryn J., Shot from the Sky: American POWs in Switzerland (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003), 21–43
Kalshoven, Frits, Reflections on the Law of War (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2007), 924
Fletcher, George P. and Ohlen, Jens David, Defending Humanity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 183
Dörmann, Knut, “The Legal Situation of ‘Unlawful/Unprivileged Combatants,’849 Int'l Rev. of Red Cross (2003), 45 Google Scholar
Schwarzenberger, Georg, International Law, vol. II: The Law of Armed Conflict (London: Stevens & Sons, 1968), 116–17
Parks, Tim, “The Insurgent,” The New Yorker, July 9 and 16, 2007, 92–7Google Scholar
Spaight, J.M., Air Power and War Rights, 3d ed. (London: Longmans, Green, 1947), 42
Tremblay, Col. E. Gerald, “Charles Lindbergh Saved My Life,” Marine Corps Gazette, May 1990, 89–90Google Scholar
Boatner, Mark M., Biographical Dictionary of World War II (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1996), 320
Dinstein, Yoram, “The Distinction Between Unlawful Combatants and War Criminals,” in Dinstein, Yoram, ed., International Law At A Time of Perplexity (Dordrecht: Nijhoff Publishers, 1989), 103, 105
Meisels, Tamar, “Combatants – Lawful and Unlawful,” 26–1 L. & Phil. (2007), 31, 55–56Google Scholar
Luttrell, Marcus, Lone Survivor (New York: Little, Brown, 2007), 169
Dennis, Michael J., “Current Developments: Newly Adopted Protocols To the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” 94–4 AJIL (Oct. 2000), 789, 792Google Scholar
Burnett, Victoria, “Detainees Plotted Bombing in Spain, Judge Says,” NY Times, Jan. 24, 2008, A6 Google Scholar
Sassòli, Marco, “Terrorism and War, in 4–5 J. of Int'l Crim. Justice (Nov. 2006), 958, 970Google Scholar
Milanovic, Marko, “Lessons for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in the War on Terror: Comparing Hamdan and the Israeli Targeted Killing Case,” 866 Int'l Rev. of the Red Cross (June 2007), 373, 388Google Scholar
Sassòli, Marco, “Query: Is There a Status of ‘Unlawful combatant?’” in Jaques, Richard B., ed., International Law Studies: Issues in International Law and Military Operations, vol. 80 (Newport, RI: Naval War College, 2006), 57–67, 61
Shirer, William L., The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), 33–4, 42–3
Aldrich, George H., “The Taliban, al Qaeda, and the Determination of Illegal Combatants, 96–4 AJIL (Oct. 2002), 891, 894Google Scholar
Franck, Thomas M., “The Taliban, al Qaeda, and the Determination of Illegal Combatants,” 96–4 AJIL (Oct. 2002), 891, 897Google Scholar
Greenberg, Karen J. and Dratel, Joshua L., The Torture Papers (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 38
Paust, Jordan J., Beyond the Law (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 10
Goldsmith, Jack, The Terror Presidency (New York: Norton, 2007), 121
Keegan, John, War and Our World (New York: Vintage, 1998), 36–7
Jinks, Derek, “The Applicability of the Geneva Conventions to the ‘Global War on Terrorism,’46–1 Virginia J. of Int'l L. (2006), 1, 15Google Scholar
Feith, Douglas J., War and Decision (New York: Harper, 2008), 160–1
Sanchez, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S., Wiser in Battle (New York: Harpers, 2008), 144
Gasser, Hans-Peter, “Acts of Terror, ‘Terrorism’ and International Humanitarian Law,” 847 Int'l Rev. of the Red Cross (Sept. 2002), 547, 549–50Google Scholar
Aldrich, George H. scolds, “[I have] limited tolerance for any purported legal concept of a war against terrorism or of a ‘global war against terror’…. One can speak of a war only emotively, as when one speaks of a war against crime or a war against drugs.” 100–2 AJIL (April 2006), 496 Google Scholar
Heere, Wybo P., ed., Terrorism and the Military (The Hague: Asser Press, 2003), 22
Wilson, Richard Ashby, ed., Human Rights in the ‘War on Terror’ (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 164–6
Pejic, Jelena writes in, “Terrorist Acts and Groups: A Role for International Law,” 75 BYIL (2004), 71, 88Google Scholar
,ICRC, “International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts,” 867 Int'l Rev. of the Red Cross (Sept. 2007), 719, 725Google Scholar
Ricks, Thomas E., Fiasco (New York: Penguin Press, 2006), 116
Katzman, Kenneth, ,Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, “Iraq: Reconciliation and Benchmarks” (12 May 2008), 1
Corn, Geoffrey S., “‘Snipers in the Minaret – What is the Rule?’ The Law of War and the Protection of Cultural Property: A Complex Equation,” The Army Lawyer (July 2005), 28, 29Google Scholar
Yoo, John, “Enemy Combatants and the Problem of Judicial Competence,” in Berkowitz, Peter, ed., Terrorism, the Laws of War, and the Constitution (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2005), 69, 74
Trainin, I.P., “Questions of Guerrilla Warfare in the Law of War, 40–3 AJIL (July 1946), 534–62, 561–2Google Scholar
Danelski, David J., “The Saboteur's Case,” vol. 1, J. of S. Ct. History (1996), 61 Google Scholar
,War Department, Rules of Land Warfare – 1914 (Washington: GPO, 1914), para. 71
Taylor, Sean, Not A Good Day to Die (New York: Berkley Books, 2005), 9
Schmitt, Michael N., “War, Technology and the Law of Armed Conflict,” in International Law Studies, vol. 82, The Law of War in the 21st Century: Weaponry and the Use of Force (Newport, RI: Naval War College, 2006), 151
Goldstein, Donald M., Dillon, Katherine V., and Wenger, J. Michael, Nuts!: The Battle of the Bulge (Washington: Brassey's, 1994), 85
Parks, W. Hays, “‘Special Forces’ Wear of Non-Standard Uniforms,” 4–2 Chicago J. of Int'l. L. (Fall, 2003), 493, 545 fn. 133Google Scholar
Thomas, Lowell, With Lawrence in Arabia (London: Hutchison, 1927)
Rona, Gabor, “An Appraisal of US Practice Relating to ‘Enemy Combatants,’” in McCormack, Timothy L.H., ed., Yearbook of I.H.L., vol. 10, 2007 (The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press, 2009), 232, 240
Goodman, Ryan, “Editorial Comment: The Detention of Civilians in Armed Conflict,” 103–1 AJIL (Jan. 2009), 48, 61Google Scholar
Beard, Jack M., “The Geneva Boomerang: The Military Commissions Act of 2006 and U.S. Counterterror Operations,” 101–1 AJIL (Jan. 2007), 56, 60Google Scholar
White, Josh, “Detainees Ruled Enemy Combatants,” NY Times, Aug. 10, 2007, A2 Google Scholar
Dinstein, Yoram, “Unlawful Combatancy,” in Borch, Fred L. and Wilson, Paul S., eds., International Law Studies, vol. 79; International Law and the War on Terror (Newport, RI: Naval War College, 2003), 151–74, 164
,DoD, Conduct of the Persian Gulf War (Washington: GPO, 1992), App. L, at 578
,Army Judge Advocate General's School, Law of War Workshop Deskbook (Charlottesville, VA: JAG School, 1997), at 5F–10–13
Yoo, John, War By Other Means (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), 22
Sassòli, Marco, “The Implementation of International Humanitarian Law: Current and Inherent Challenges,” in McCormack, Timothy L.H., ed., Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (The Hague: Asser Press, 2009), 45, 51
Dehn, John C., “Why Article 5 Status Determinations are not ‘Required’ at Guantanamo,” 6–2 J. of Int'l Crim. Justice (May 2008), 371 Google Scholar
Hensel, Howard M., ed., The Law of Armed Conflict (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005), 172
Spaight, J.M., Air Power and the Cities (London: Longmans & Green, 1930), 150–2
Crane, Conrad C., Bombs, Cities, and Civilians (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1993), 23
Mettraux, Guénaël, International Crimes and the Ad Hoc Tribunals (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 159
Sassòli, Marco, “The Status of Persons Held in Guantànamo under International Humanitarian Law,” 2–1 J. of Int'l Crim Justice (March 2004), 96, 104Google Scholar
Lauterpacht, H., ed., Annual Digest and Reports of Public International Law Cases: Year 1946 (London: Butterworth, 1951), 293
Meron, Theodor, The Humanization of International Law (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006), 34–5

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×