IHL.md

List of scholarly publications and treatises on International Humanitarian Law (IHL), otherwise known as Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC).

These will aid those interested in LOAC as it relates to some of the lists and essays in the repository. From lay person, beginner and advanced readers will find the list of materials here most useful.

Contents

• Papers & expert commentary
• ICC
• Treatises

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Notes:

• Right-click on a hyperlink to open. Clicking directly will cause the current tab to load the link.
• Install the official wayback machine browser addon, from archive.org, to aid in any 404 errors. I try to fix them myself, but still a good addon to have.

Papers & expert commentary

• Targeting: Principles of International Humanitarian Law
• The Non-combatant Casualty Cut-off Value: Assessment of a Novel Targeting Technique in Operation Inherent Resolve
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization Legal Advisor: A Primer
• Lex Lata or Lex Ferenda? Rule 45 of the ICRC study on Customary International Humanitarian Law
• Deadly Advice: Judge Advocates and Joint Targeting
• Detention Operations in Non-International Armed Conflicts between International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law and National Standards: A NATO Perspective
• “On Target”: Precision and Balance in the Contemporary Law of Targeting
• Conducting unconventional warfare in compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict
• Special Operations Commando Raids and Enemy Hors de Combat
• The Detention and Prosecution of Insurgents and Other Non-Traditional Combatants— A Look at the Task Force 134 Process and the Future of Detainee Prosecutions
• Protecting civilians in urban areas: A military perspective on the application of international humanitarian law
• The House built on sand: An analysis of battlefield mercy killings in Non-International Armed Conflicts under International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law
• Totality of the Circumstances: The DoD Law of War Manual and the Evolving Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities
• Joint and Combined Targeting: System and Process
• Nuclear Weapons Targeting: Evolution of Law and U.S. Policy
• Affirmative Target Identification: Operationalizing the Principle of Distinction for U.S. Warfighters
• Belligerent Targeting and the Invalidity of a Least Harmful Means Rule
• Two Sides of the Combatant COIN: Untangling Direct Participation in Hostilites from Belligerent Status in Non-International Armed Conflicts
• Targeting and International Humanitarian Law in Afghanistan
• Targeting and Civilian Risk Mitigation: The Essential Role of Precautionary Measures
• False Rubicons, Moral Panic & Conceptual Cul-De-Sacs: Critiquing & Reframing the Call to Ban Lethal Autonomous Weapons
• Detention Operations in Non-International Armed Conflicts between International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law and National Standards: A NATO Perspective
• The Law of Operational Targeting: Viewing the LOAC Through an Operational Lens
• The Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities: A Critical Analysis
• Civilians with skin in the game: The Law of War Manual's rejection of the ICRC guidance on Direct Participation in Hostilities
• Opportunity Lost: Organized Armed Groups and the ICRC “Direct Participation in Hostilities” Interpretive Guidance
• Deconstructing Direct Participation in Hostilities: The Constitutive Elements
• Part IX of the ICRC “Direct Participation in Hostilities” Study: No Mandate, No Expertise, and Legally Incorrect
• And for Such Time As”: The Time Dimension to Direct Participation in Hostilities
• Targeted Killing and Accountability
• Down is not always out: Hors De Combat in the close fight
• Responding to Proxy Cyber Operations Under International Law
• The legitimacy of modern conventional weaponry
• Yes, we can: The authority to detain as customary international law
• U.S. Position on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea
• US Landmine policy complies with International Law
• The crime of aggression: The United States Perspective
• ISIL’s Human Shields in Mosul and the U.S. Response
• A Squarable Circle?: The Revised DoD Law of War Manual and the Challenge of Human Shields
• Changes to Rules of Engagement Approval Levels and Civilian Casualties
• Eyes Wide Shut: Scahill and Greenwald’s Flawed Critique of U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
• There Is Much More to a Civilian Casualty Investigation than Eyewitness Accounts
• Targeting the Islamic State: Activity-Based Intelligence and Modern Airpower
• The principle of distinction in complex military operations
• Extending Positive Identification from Persons to Places: Terrorism, Armed Conflict and the Identification of Military Objectives
• Is attacking the electricity infrastructure used by civilians always a war crime?
• Dave Graham reviews “The Future Law of Armed Conflict” (Part 1)
• Airpower, Law and the Warfighter’s Perspective
• Special Forces' Wear of Non-Standard Uniforms
• It is Not Self-Defense: Direct Participation in Hostilities Authority at the Tactical Level
• Rules of Engagement Demystified: A Study of the History, Development and Use of ROEs
• The French Military Intervention in Mali, Counter-Terrorism, and the Law of Armed Conflict
• Hunting Down Terrorists “Wherever They Exist”: ISIL in Syria and the Legal Argument for United States Military Operations Within the Territory of a Non-Consenting Nation-State
• A State of Complicity: How Russia’s Persistent and Public Denial of Syrian Battlefield Atrocities Violates International Law
• Which States Support the 'Unwilling and Unable' Test?
• The Legitimacy of Modern Conventional Weaponry
• The Lawfulness of United States Assistance to the Republic of Vietnam
• VietNam and the International Law of Self-Defense
• The Legality of United States Participation in the Defense of Vietnam
• Legal Memorandum on U.S. Action in Vietnam
• The Lawfulness of Military Assistance to the Republic of Vietnam
• Five Legal Takeaways from the Syrian War
• State-Sponsored Assassination in International and Domestic Law
• Was the Soleimani Killing an Assassination?
• Effects based enforcement targeting law
• The tyranny of context: Israeli targeting practices in legal perspective
• The Goldstone report: Politicization of the Law of Armed Conflict and those left behind
• A Critique of the Goldstone Report and Its Treatment of International Humanitarian Law
• Investigating Violations of International Law in Armed Conflict
• U.S. Army Protection of Civilians Techniques Publication
• U.S. Marine Corps Civilian Casualty Mitigation Lessons Learned Report
• Collateral Damage Estimation Methodology
• Should the U.S. Military Receive the Benefit of the Doubt When Investigating Itself for Alleged War Crimes?
• Collateral Damage Estimation Qualification Course Syllabus
• Air Force Doctrine Publication 3-60, Targeting
• The Use of Force against Ukraine and International Law
• Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the jus ad bellum
• On the Legal Presumptions of Civilian Status: A Rebuttal In Support of the DoD Manual” (Part I)
• On the Legal Presumptions of Civilian Status: A Rebuttal In Support of the DoD Manual (Part II)
• On the Legal Presumptions of Civilian Status: A Rebuttal In Support of the DoD Manual (Part III)
• DoD’s law of war about-face is problematic for both civilians and warfighters
• 2023 DoD Manual Revision – The Civilian Presumption Misnomer
• Collateral damage on the 21st century battlefield: Enemy exploitation of the Law of Armed Conflict, and the struggle for a moral high ground
• The Combatant Status of the “Little Green Men" and Other Participants in the Ukraine Conflict
• Self-Defense Against an Imminent or Actual Armed Attack By Nonstate Actors
• Identifying Customary LOAC in Practice
• The United States’ Practical Approach to Identifying Customary Law of Armed Conflict
• Operational Challenges in Ground Operations in Urban Areas: An IDF Perspective
• Challenges in the Interpretation and Application of the Principle of Distinction During Ground Operations in Urban AreasDistinction During Ground Operations in Urban Areas
• Warning Civilians Prior to Attack under International Law: Theory and Practice
• The Application of IHL in the Goldstone Report: A Critical Commentary
• Four Comments on the Application of Proportionality under the Law of Armed ConflictLaw of Armed Conflict
• Fight, Forge, and Fund: Three Select Issues on Targeting of PersonsPersons
• Collateral damage on the 21st century battlefield: enemy exploitation of the law of armed conflict, and the struggle for a moral high ground
• Should Have Known Better? The Standard of Knowledge for Command Responsibility in International Criminal Law
• Aid and Assistance as a “Use of Force” Under the Jus Ad Bellum
• A Broad Overview of the Law of Armed Conflict in the Age of Terror
• To Russia with Love: How Moral Arguments for a Humanitarian Intervention in Syria Opened the Door for an Invasion of the Ukraine
• Modern Weapons and the Law of Armed Conflict
• Trying to Make Sense of the Senseless: Classifying the Syrian War Under the Law of Armed Conflict
• Bin Laden and Awlaki: Lawful Targets
• How Do You Like Me Now? Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Legal Justifications for Global Targeting
• Humanitarian Law and Direct Participation in Hostilties by Private Contractors or Civilian Employees
• Human Shields in International Humanitarian Law
• Wings Over Libya: The No-Fly Zone in Legal Perspective
• Extraterritorial Lethal Targeting: Deconstructing the Logic of International Law
• Drone Law: A Reply to UN Special Rapporteur Emmerson
• Clipped Wings: Effective and Legal No-Fly Zone Rules of Engagement
• Targeting Narcoinsurgents in Afghanistan: The Limits of International Humanitarian Law
• Aerial Blockades in Historical, Legal and Practical Perspective
• The Gulf War: A Practitioner's View
• Lessons from the 1986 Libya Airstrike
• Air War and the Law of War
• Representative Sara Jacobs and Senator Dick Durbin Take Aim at the DoD Law of War Manual—and Miss
• New York Times, Law of War, and Congressional Overreach in U.S. Military OperationsMilitary Operation
• Recklessness, Intent, and War Crimes: Refining the Legal Standard and Clarifying the Role of International Criminal Tribunals as a Source of Customary International Law
• Fifth Anniversary of the Attack on the MSF Trauma Center in Kunduz, Afghanistan
• GAO Yemen Report Deficient in Applying International Law and U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer Policy
• A Detailed Assessment of the Sexual Assault Prevalence Statistics at the Center of the Military Justice Reform Movement
• Measuring the Effectiveness of the Proposal to Divest Military Commanders of Disposition Authority for Sexual Assault Cases: A Comparative Quantitative Analysis
• “Unwilling or Unable”
• Conflict in Gregoria and Tanaka: The Law of Targeting
• Manifestly Unlawful: Why Russian Military Commanders Must Disobey a Nuclear Launch Order Against Ukraine

ICC

• Understanding the International Criminal Court
• How the International Criminal Court Threatens Treaty Norms
• Jus in Bello Futura ignotus: The United States, the International Criminal Court, and the uncertain future of the Law of Armed Conflict
• Exercise Jurisdiction at the Edge—What Happens Next? An Analysis of International Criminal Court Substantive Law as Applied to Non-Party State Nationals
• The ICC Wants Justice But Has No Mandate

Treatises

• U. S. Military Operations Law, Policy, And Practice
• The West Point Companion to the Updated ICRC Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention
• Handbook Of The International Law Of Military Operations
• Practitioners Guide To Human Rights Law In Armed Conflict
• Operational Law Handbook, 2022
• DoD Law of War Manual, 2016 update
• The Law of War: A Detailed Assessment of the US Department of Defense Law of War Manual
• The Role of nato’s Legal Adviser
• Danish Law of War manual, English
• Protection of civilians—military reference guide
• Cyber Law Toolkit
• The Law of Targeting
• The Newport Manual on the Law of Naval Warfare
• Newport Rules of Engagement Handbook
• Non-international armed conflict in the twenty-first century
• Targeting enemy merchant shipping
• International law and the War on Terror
• The law of military operations
• The tanker war, 1980-88: law and policy
• The war in Iraq: a legal analysis
• The war in Afghanistan: a legal analysis
• Legal and ethical lessons of NATO's Kosovo campaign
• International law studies: criminal jurisdiction over visiting armed forces
• Commander's legal handbook 2019
• Law and Military operations in the Balkans (1995-1998)
• Forged in the Fire: Lessons learned during Military Operations (1994-2008)
• Legal lessons learned from Afghanistan and Iraq: Volume 1: Major Combat Operations (11 September 2001-1 May 2003)
• Legal lessons learned from Afghanistan and Iraq: Volume 2 Full Spectrum Operations 2 May 2003 - 30 June 2004
• Weapons and the Law of Armed Conflict
• Rules of Engagement and the International Law of Military Operations
• The War on Terror and the Laws of War
• Fighting at the Legal Boundaries: Controlling the Use of Force in Contemporary Conflict
• The Law in War: A Concise Overview, 2nd edition
• The Law of Armed Conflict: An Operational Approach
• The Law of Air, Space and Cyber operations, 4th ed.
• Nuclear Weapons Law: Where Are We Now?
• Annotated Supplement to the Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations