This collection of essays by Professor Michael N. Schmitt of Durham University draws together those of his articles published over the past two decades that have explored particular fault lines in the law of armed conflict. As such, they examine the complex interplay between warfare and law, seeking to identify where the law and warfare appear to diverge, and where such apparent divergence can be accommodated through contextual interpretation of the law. Each essay examines a particular issue in either the jus ad bellum (the law governing resort to force) or jus in bello (international humanitarian law) that has proven contentious in terms of applying extant norms to the evolving face of armed conflict. Among the topics addressed are counter-terrorism, cyber operations, asymmetrical warfare, assassination, environmental warfare and the participation of civilians in hostilities.

The Morality of the Laws of War examines the modern landscape of the ethics of war. Rudolphy assesses the conflicting theories on the legality of just and unjust combatants. While doing this, she proposes an alternative morality of war proceeding from the inescapable fact that regulating war is always a significant moral compromise.

The Law of Maritime Blockade sets out the law applicable to maritime blockades in armed conflict, testing the traditional rules of maritime blockade against the requirements of contemporary international humanitarian law. An important issue addressed is the legality of a blockade even if it results in mass starvation of the affected population.

This book conceptualizes and examines theories of the 'Legal Pluriverse': the multiplicity of rules that regulate multinational missions and the diverse actors involved. The book sets out the various legal regimes, assesses how these rules interact, and exposes norm conflicts, areas of legal uncertainty, or ambiguous loopholes.

McDonald's book lays bare the legal and political consequences of Washington's pursuit of militarised counterterrorism in the post-9/11 era

This comprehensive volume addresses the important question of whether and how the current transformation of targeted killing is transforming the global international order. The age-old practice of targeted killing has undergone a profound transformation since the turn of the millennium. States resort to it more frequently, especially in the context of counter-terrorism operations. The rapid development of surveillance and drone technologies facilitates targeted-killing missions, and states are starting to slowly abandon their policies of secrecy and denial with regard to this form of violence. To answer this question, the volume introduces a theoretical framework that conceives the maintenance and transformation of international order as a dynamic, triangular process between violence, discourse, and the institutions that make up the international order. It then sheds light on different parts of this triangular process: the reinterpretation of international law to legitimize targeted killing, the contestation between state and non-state actors over the development of a new targeted-killing norm, the emergence of targeted killing in the context of changes in the broader normative context of international order, and the impact of new technologies, in particular autonomous weapons systems, on the future of targeted-killing practices and international order. This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Security Policy.

Modern technological development has been both rapid and fundamentally transformative of the means and methods of warfare, and of the broader environment in which warfare is conducted. In many cases, technological development has been stimulated by, and dedicated to, addressing military requirements. On other occasions, technological developments outside the military sphere affect or inform the conduct of warfare and military expectations. The introduction of new technologies such as information technology, space technologies, nanotechnology and robotic technologies into our civil life, and into warfare, is expected to influence the application and interpretation of the existing rules of the law of armed conflict. In this book, scholars and practitioners working in the fields critically examine the potential legal challenges arising from the use of new technologies and future directions of legal development in light of the specific characteristics and challenges each technology presents with regard to foreseeable humanitarian impacts upon the battlespace.

The law of armed conflict is a key element of the global legal order yet it finds itself in a state of flux created by the changing nature of warfare and the influences of other branches of international law. The Routledge Handbook of the Law of Armed Conflict provides a unique perspective on the field covering all the key aspects of the law as well as identifying developing and often contentious areas of interest. The handbook will feature original pieces by international experts in the field, including academics, staff of relevant NGOs and (former) members of the armed forces. Made up of six parts in order to offer a comprehensive overview of the field, the structure of the handbook is as follows: Part I: Fundamentals Part II: Principle of distinction Part III: Means and methods of warfare Part IV: Special protection regimes Part V: Compliance and enforcement Part VI: Some contemporary issues Throughout the book, attention is paid to non-international conflicts as well as international conflicts with acknowledgement of the differences. The contributors also consider the relationship between the law of armed conflict and human rights law, looking at how the various rules and principles of human rights law interact with specific rules and principles of international humanitarian law in particular circumstances. The Routledge Handbook of the Law of Armed Conflict provides a fresh take on the contemporary laws of war and is written for advanced level students, academics, researchers, NGOs and policy-makers with an interest in the field.

The chapters in this volume have their origins in papers presented at a Workshop held at Lund University in Sweden. The Workshop gathered together experts from Europe, the United States and Australia, including leading academics as well as representatives from the ICRC, the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish Red Cross Societies and the Swedish and Norwegian governments, to examine the relevance and adequacy of the existing regime for environmental protection during armed conflict as well as the ability of other international legal mechanisms to contribute to the amelioration of damage to the environment arising as a result of or in relation to armed conflict. The book, like the Workshop, takes as its starting point the existing IHL regime for the protection of the environment during armed conflict and goes on to explore the application of other legal regimes that may be relevant to protection of the environment both during armed conflict and, as in the broader context envisaged by the ILC, in relation to armed conflict. As this thought-provoking volume demonstrates, a vast range of issues, actors and legal regimes must now be considered and some pro-active and imaginative research and thinking brought to bear in any consideration of this ever-important topic. Some papers appeared previously in a special issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law.

Presents a shift from the accepted international relations standard of theorizing, by analyzing policy decisions made in non-ideal conditions within a broader framework of practical choices, emphasizing both historicity and contingency, as exemplified by changing practices in the international arena.