Law of War: Strategies and Ethics in Modern Combat

By Fouad Sabry

What is Law of War

The law of war is the component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war and the conduct of hostilities. Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, occupation, and other critical terms of law.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Law of war

Chapter 2: War crime

Chapter 3: Geneva Protocol

Chapter 4: Fourth Geneva Convention

Chapter 5: Civilian

Chapter 6: Unlawful combatant

Chapter 7: Combatant

Chapter 8: Non-combatant

Chapter 9: Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907

Chapter 10: International humanitarian law

(II) Answering the public top questions about law of war.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Law of War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 3, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Law of war

The law of war is the branch of international law that governs the criteria for declaring war (jus ad bellum) and the conduct of combatants (jus in bello). The laws of war describe sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, occupation, and a number of other essential legal terminology.

Modern rules of war address, among other issues, declarations of war, acceptance of surrender, and treatment of prisoners of war; military necessity, distinction, and proportionality; and the prohibition of particular weapons that may cause needless suffering.

The law of war is distinguished from other bodies of law, such as the domestic law of a particular belligerent to a conflict, which may impose extra legal restrictions on the conduct or justification of war.

Babylonians left the earliest signs of a code of battle. In 1750 B.C., the Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, describes its laws mandating a code of conduct in times of conflict:

I prescribe these regulations to prevent the powerful from oppressing the vulnerable.

In ancient India, the Mahabharata and Manou's law writings preached clemency toward unarmed or injured foes. Both the Bible and the Qur'an provide guidelines about respecting one's opponent. Always, it is necessary to set rules that safeguard people and the defeated.

There is a long history of attempts to define and govern the behavior of individuals, states, and other agents in conflict and to reduce the worst effects of war. The Mahabharata and the Old Testament provide the earliest known examples (Torah).

In the Indian subcontinent, the Mahabharata portrays a dialogue between ruling brothers regarding acceptable military conduct, an early instance of the law of proportionality:

It is improper to attack chariots with cavalry; chariot warriors should be used instead. One should not attack a distressed person, neither to frighten him nor to defeat him... The purpose of battle should be conquest; one should not be angry by an enemy who is not actively attempting to kill him.

An example from the Book of Deuteronomy 20:19–20 minimizes environmental damage by permitting only the felling of non-productive trees for use in the siege operation, while fruitful trees should be saved for use as a source of sustenance:

¹⁹When you besiege a city for a long time, waging battle against it to capture it, You shall not use an axe to cut down the forest's trees.

You may consume them, but you shall not take down the trees.

Are the trees in the field conscious?, that they should be besieged by you? ²⁰Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may construct siegeworks against the city with whom you are at war, before it falls.

Similarly, Deuteronomy 21:10–14 stipulates that female captives who were forced to marry the conquerors of a war and are no longer desired must be set free and cannot be treated as slaves or sold for money:

¹⁰When you go out to war against your enemies, then the Lord your God delivers them into your hands, and you capture them, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you intend to make her your wife, ¹² and you bring her home to your house, She must shave her head and trim her fingernails.

After that, you can marry her and become her husband, she shall become your wife.

¹⁴ But if you no longer delight in her, You shall permit her to go where she desires.

However, you may not sell her for money, She shall not be treated as a slave, since she has been humiliated by you."

Abu Bakr, the first Sunni Muslim caliph, instructed his Muslim troops against mutilating corpses, killing children, women, and the old during the beginning of the seventh century. He also enacted regulations prohibiting environmental damage to trees and the slaughter of the enemy's animals:

Stop, O people, so that I may provide you with 10 battlefield guidelines. Do not engage in treachery or stray from the correct path. You may not mutilate deceased individuals. Never kill a child, a lady, or an elderly person. Bring no harm to the trees, and especially do not burn the fertile ones with fire. Except for food, do not kill any of the enemy's flock. You may likely encounter individuals who have devoted their lives to monastic service; respect their privacy.

Moreover, Sura Al-Baqara 2:190–193 of the Quran stipulates that in warfare, Muslims are only permitted to strike back in self-defense against those who strike against them, but are ordered to halt attacking once their opponents cease attacking:

And fight with them until there is no persecution and Allah's religion is the sole one, but if they cease, there should be no animosity save against the oppressors.

Throughout the history of the early Christian church, many Christian authors believed that Christians could not serve in the military or wage war. This was refuted by Augustine of Hippo's 'just war' concept, in which he outlined the conditions under which war may be ethically justifiable.

In 697, Adomnan of Iona convened the kings and church leaders of Ireland and Scotland to Birr, where he presented them with the 'Law of the Innocents', which prohibited the killing of women and children during battle and the destruction of churches.

In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church began to promulgate doctrines on fair war, which were mirrored in part by groups such as the Peace and Truce of God. Hugo Grotius and his efforts to draft laws of war continued the drive to restrict the scope of battle and to protect the lives and property of noncombatants.

One of the grievances listed in the American Declaration of Independence was that King George III has endeavored to send upon the population of our boundaries the cruel Indian Savages, whose known rule of battle is the complete slaughter of all ages, sexes, and situations..

Modern law of war is composed on three primary sources:

Lawmaking treaties (or conventions)—see § International treaties on the laws of war below.

Not all of the law of war stems from such treaties or has been integrated into them, which can relate to the continuing significance of customary law as expressed by the Martens Clause. This customary international law is developed by the common practices of nations and their recognition that such practices are required by international law.

General Guidelines. A few fundamental principles offer fundamental direction. For instance, the customary international law standards of distinction, proportionality, and necessity are always applicable to the use of military force..

Positive international humanitarian law consists of treaties (international accords) that directly impact the laws of war by obligating consenting governments and gaining widespread support.

Contrary to positive rules of war are customary laws of war, many of which were investigated during the Nuremberg War Trials. These rules outline both the permissive rights and prohibited conduct of nations when interacting with irregular forces and nonsignatories.

The Armistice and Regularization of War Treaty signed on November 25 and November 26, 1820 between the president of the Colombian Republic, Simón Bolívar and the Chief of the Military Forces of the Spanish Kingdom, Pablo Morillo, precedes International Humanitarian Law.

During this modern era, the international conference functioned as a platform for debate and agreement between governments, while the multilateral treaty acted as a positive vehicle for codification.

The Nuremberg War Trial judgment on The Law Relating to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity held, under the Nuremberg Principles, that treaties like the Hague Convention of