Jelena Pejic – författare

Protecting civilians who have fallen into enemy hands or are just about to come under the adversary's control is a constant challenge in the application of international humanitarian law (IHL) and the law of armed conflict (LOAC). Despite many decades of scholarship, military operational practice, and advocacy, certain legal questions remain unresolved, while others have been insufficiently examined or are newly emerging due to technological, societal, and cultural developments. Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict explores a range of longstanding, current, and new legal and practical issues in the interpretation and application of IHL/LOAC related to civilian protection. The subjects selected are based on the experiences or observations of repeated dilemmas about the extent of legal protections owed and actually extended to civilians in military operations. These include the protection of unprivileged belligerents and civilians in the invasion phase of international armed conflict, the law underlying civilian “screening” operations, and the challenges of setting up humanitarian corridors. Responding to recent armed conflicts including in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, renewed attention is also paid to the rules governing deportation and forced conscription, and to the evolving area of civilian data protection and extraterritorial data migration. Developing interfaces between IHL/LOAC and other legal regimes, including environmental concerns, gender considerations, emerging technologies, and forensic science considerations are likewise explored. In all cases, accountability for non-respect of IHL/LOAC remains a fundamental legal obligation.

Protecting civilians who have fallen into enemy hands or are just about to come under the adversary's control is a constant challenge in the application of international humanitarian law (IHL) and the law of armed conflict (LOAC). Despite many decades of scholarship, military operational practice, and advocacy, certain legal questions remain unresolved, while others have been insufficiently examined or are newly emerging due to technological, societal, and cultural developments. Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict explores a range of longstanding, current, and new legal and practical issues in the interpretation and application of IHL/LOAC related to civilian protection. The subjects selected are based on the experiences or observations of repeated dilemmas about the extent of legal protections owed and actually extended to civilians in military operations. These include the protection of unprivileged belligerents and civilians in the invasion phase of international armed conflict, the law underlying civilian a screeninga operations, and the challenges of setting up humanitarian corridors. Responding to recent armed conflicts including in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, renewed attention is also paid to the rules governing deportation and forced conscription, and to the evolving area of civilian data protection and extraterritorial data migration. Developing interfaces between IHL/LOAC and other legal regimes, including environmental concerns, gender considerations, emerging technologies, and forensic science considerations are likewise explored. In all cases, accountability for non-respect of IHL/LOAC remains a fundamental legal obligation.

Protecting civilians who have fallen into enemy hands or are just about to come under the adversary's control is a constant challenge in the application of international humanitarian law (IHL) and the law of armed conflict (LOAC). Despite many decades of scholarship, military operational practice, and advocacy, certain legal questions remain unresolved, while others have been insufficiently examined or are newly emerging due to technological, societal, and cultural developments. Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict explores a range of longstanding, current, and new legal and practical issues in the interpretation and application of IHL/LOAC related to civilian protection. The subjects selected are based on the experiences or observations of repeated dilemmas about the extent of legal protections owed and actually extended to civilians in military operations. These include the protection of unprivileged belligerents and civilians in the invasion phase of international armed conflict, the law underlying civilian a screeninga operations, and the challenges of setting up humanitarian corridors. Responding to recent armed conflicts including in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, renewed attention is also paid to the rules governing deportation and forced conscription, and to the evolving area of civilian data protection and extraterritorial data migration. Developing interfaces between IHL/LOAC and other legal regimes, including environmental concerns, gender considerations, emerging technologies, and forensic science considerations are likewise explored. In all cases, accountability for non-respect of IHL/LOAC remains a fundamental legal obligation.

International law and armed conflict exist in a symbiotic relationship. In some cases, law shapes conflict proactively by imposing normative limits in advance of the appearance of proscribed conduct. Much more commonly, armed conflict either reveals lacunae in the law or demonstrates how law designed for yesterday’s wars falls short when applied to contemporary conflict. When that happens, international law reacts by allowing provisions to fall into desuetude, embracing new interpretations of existing prescriptions, or generating new norms through practice or codification.In the 21st Century, both international security and armed conflict are the subject of arguably unprecedented sea changes. As a result, claims that both the jus ad bellum and jus in bello are unwieldy and ill-fitting in the context of modern hostilities have surfaced prominently. Whether one agrees with such dire assessments, what has become clear is that armed conflict is increasingly exposing faultlines in the law governing the resort to force.The intent of this collection of essays in honour of Professor Yoram Dinstein on the occasion of his 70th birthday is to explore such faultlines, first by identifying them and then by assessing their consequences. In a sense, then, the essays, contributed by the top minds in the field, will serve to assist academics and practitioners to anticipate pressure on the law governing armed conflict and, to the extent possible, react accordingly. Paralleling Professor Dinstein’s classic works – War, Aggression, and Self-Defence and The Conduct of Hostilities Under the Law of International Armed Conflict − the book addresses both ius ad bellum and ius in bello topics.