Symposia

[The author is a Lecturer in International Humanitarian Law at Egerton University.] Introduction Contemporary armed conflicts in Africa and elsewhere continue to pose significant challenges for the legal protection of life, limb, livelihood and property of the individuals and communities caught up in those situations. Most of the unlawful conduct that typifies recent armed conflicts in Africa – including intentionally directing attacks...

[Helen Stamp is a PhD candidate in the Minderoo Tech & Policy Lab at the University of Western Australia and researches concepts of control, responsibility, and accountability regarding the development and use of autonomous vehicles and autonomous weapons.] The ongoing discussions by the international community regarding the challenges posed by emerging technologies and the application of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to the use...

[Karolina Aksamitowska is a Swansea University Research Excellence Scholar at the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University, Wales, UK.] The book that is the focus of this symposium, Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law, is an important contribution to international law and practice. Generating respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) is one of the most difficult challenges faced by...

[Ata R. Hindi is Research Fellow in International Law, Institute of Law at Birzeit University. Twitter: @atarhindi] Eve Massingham and Annabel McConnachie’s edited volume, Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law, is a meticulous and necessary contribution to the study and practice of international humanitarian law (IHL). The volume focuses on Common Article 1 (CA1) to the four Geneva Conventions (GCs), which...

[Dr Ray Murphy is Professor at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway. ] Leanne Smith’s chapter seeks to examine the complexities posed by ensuring respect for IHL in the peacekeeping context.  It also explores the relationship between humanitarian actors and peacekeepers.  A real strength of the chapter is that much of it is written from what the author refers to on page 153 as a...

[Parisa Zangeneh is a PhD student at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, where she is a recipient of the Hardiman Scholarship.] In 2020, the volume Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law was published as part of the Routledge Research in the Law of Armed Conflict Book Series. Edited by Eve Massingham and Annabel McConnachie, the book explores the various ways in which Common Article 1 (CA1) of...

[Giovanni Mantilla is University Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) and Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, and of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law and is the author of Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian law and Internal Armed Conflict.] I am humbled by the generous comments of nine excellent readers of my book, Lawmaking under Pressure. Having worked on...

Katharine Fortin has her commentary on Giovanni Mantilla's book up at Armed Groups and International Law and you can find it here. Katharine Fortin is Assistant Professor of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights at Utrecht University. She has published widely on the legal framework pertaining to non international armed conflicts and her monograph The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law (OUP) won...

[At the time of conceptualizing this post, Iris Mueller was a thematic legal adviser in the ICRC legal division, working mostly on customary IHL. Previously, she was a legal adviser on the update of the ICRC commentaries on the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977 Additional Protocols. She continues to work for the ICRC in a legal capacity.] The regulation of non-international armed conflicts by international humanitarian law (IHL)...

Today, Boyd van Dijk shares his thoughts on Mantilla's book over at Armed Groups and International Law here. Boyd van Dijk is a McKenzie Fellow at the Melbourne Law School. He received his PhD in History from the European University Institute. His most recent publications have appeared in the American Journal of International Law, Law and History Review, and Past & Present. His forthcoming...

[Charli Carpenter is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Legal Studies at University of Massachusetts-Amherst specializing in international law and human security, and Director of Human Security Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative focused on science in the human interest.] Giovanni Mantilla has written what will likely become a landmark history of the evolution of the Geneva Conventions. His monograph is simultaneously a detailed diplomatic history and an analytical argument about the power and...