Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Table of Cases
- Table of Treaties
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT: INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW IN WAR
- LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW: A FRAMEWORK
- 5 Conflict Status
- 6 Individual Battlefield Status
- 7 Law of Armed Conflict's Four Core Principles
- 8 What Is a “War Crime”?
- LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW: BATTLEFIELD ISSUES
- References
- Index
- References
6 - Individual Battlefield Status
from LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW: A FRAMEWORK
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Table of Cases
- Table of Treaties
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT: INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW IN WAR
- LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW: A FRAMEWORK
- 5 Conflict Status
- 6 Individual Battlefield Status
- 7 Law of Armed Conflict's Four Core Principles
- 8 What Is a “War Crime”?
- LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW: BATTLEFIELD ISSUES
- References
- Index
- References
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.
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- Information
- The Law of Armed ConflictInternational Humanitarian Law in War, pp. 186 - 249Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010