Civilising war? Human rights and the contemporary law of Armed Conflict

Aims of the course

This course aims to introduce you to the contemporary law of armed conflict in international relations and allow you to assess whether it works in limiting war’s horrors and what role international tribunals have to play. By the end of the course, you will be able to:
1. Chart the development of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) since 1850 and demonstrate the impact that this has had on the conduct of hostilities.
2. Describe who is and is not covered by the Geneva Conventions and LOAC under different circumstances.
3. Explain what crimes are justiciable before the international courts and who can be tried.

Content

War is depressingly constant throughout human history, and in the modern era, civilians frequently find themselves in the front line of today’s “wars amongst the people”, in Somalia, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Sudan/South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and with a major European War ongoing, questions around the role of law in regulating conflict – or indeed whether this is even a meaningful concept – lie at the heart of international relations policy.

Building on centuries of international custom, this course will chart the evolution of legal attempts from the mid-19th century to the present to limit war’s excesses, and to reduce unnecessary suffering. We will look closely at the catalytic effect of the Second World War on the international legal order covering armed conflict and genocide, and the resurgent role of international justice in the post-Cold War era, before moving onto the current debate about whether, when and how States may intervene to protect human rights. Can the UN Security Council be bypassed via ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P)? If so, when and how? What does a would-be intervener need to demonstrate in order to do so?

Presentation of the course

This course will take the form of five 90-minute lectures with slides and additional reading.

Class sessions

1. Introduction to Jus in Bello (LOAC)
In this session we will detail the difference between jus in bello – the law of armed conflict – and the jus ad bellum – the legality of using force. We will then chart the regulation of war from its earliest days through the Middle Ages to the First World War. We will see that there is a breadth of international practice and similar values in very distinct cultural contexts, coming together in the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross under Henri Dunant, and the first attempts at arms control.

2. The Hague and Geneva Law
Building on Session 1, we will look at the central elements of contemporary LOAC: the Hague Regulations, the Geneva Conventions and the 1951 Genocide Convention.

3. Modernising LOAC and Arms Control
The 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1951 Genocide Convention reflected the classic war-as-interstate conflict paradigm with clear sides and combatants. But as decolonisation unfolded, the law needed to evolve to reflect the realities of national liberation wars and the rights of colonial peoples being denied self-determination – and the result is the Second Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions from 1977. This leads to a discussion of combatant status in insurgencies and the evolution of the notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities (DPH).

4. Defining Aggression and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
The key blocker to the creation of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) Criminal Chamber in the 1950s was an inability for the international community to agree on a definition of aggression. We will trace how this was successively dealt with, and how it is now (imperfectly) prosecutable at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an international crime. In the second half of this lecture, we will look at what happens when the Security Council is confronted by atrocity and is unable or unwilling to come to a consensus on how to act.

5. International justice: Ending Impunity
The final session of the course will look at justice. World War II ended with the Nuremburg and Tokyo war crimes trials, heralding a new era that ended impunity. Unfortunately, the UN General Assembly’s proposals for a criminal chamber of the International Court of Justice went nowhere in the early Cold War, leaving an institutional hole in the international legal architecture. This would be filled by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the internationalised courts and the International Criminal Court, which we will consider in this session.

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are:
1. Chart the development of the law of armed conflict since 1850.
2. Familiarity with the impact the law of armed conflict has had (or not) on the conduct of hostilities.
3. Understand the successes and failures of international/internationalised criminal courts in ending impunity.

Required reading

Please note: students are required to read either Crawford or Solis.
*Crawford, E, Pert, A., (2020) International Humanitarian Law, (2nd Ed.), CUP, Cambridge. ISBN: 978-1108727716 (This is a very readable introduction to the subject.)

*Schabas, W A, (2017) An Introduction to the International Criminal Court, CUP, Cambridge. ISBN: 978-1316459997 Chapters 1-5, 8-10

*Solis, G D, (2021) The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War, (3rd Ed.), CUP, Cambridge. ISBN: 978-1108831635 (recommended if you’re interested in taking the subject further, though it is more demanding of the reader.)

Please familiarise yourself with the UN Charter
*UN Charter, https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text
*United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 2005 World Summit Outcome (2005) UN Doc A/Res/60/1 paras 138–39, available from: A/RES/60/1 2005 World Summit Outcome (un.org)
Treaties:
*1949 Geneva Conventions
*1951 Genocide Convention
*1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions 1949

Typical week: Monday to Friday

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students. 

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.