The Law of Armed Conflict

Solis, Gary D.Gary D. Solis is a retired professor of law of the United States Military Academy, where he taught the law of armed conflict and directed West Point's law of war program for six years. He was a 2007 Library of Congress scholar in residence. He is a retired US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, having twice served in Vietnam, where he was a company commander. He holds law degrees from the University of California, Davis and George Washington University, Washington DC. He has a doctorate in the law of war from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a member of the American Law Institute and teaches the law of war at Georgetown University Law Center. His books include Marines and Military Law in Vietnam (1989) and Son Thang: An American War Crime (1997).

Newly revised and expanded, The Law of Armed Conflict, 2nd edition introduces law students and undergraduates to the law of war in an age of terrorism. What law of armed conflict (LOAC), or its civilian counterpart, international humanitarian law (IHL), applies in a particular armed conflict? Are terrorists legally bound by that law? What constitutes a war crime? What (or who) is a lawful target and how are targeting decisions made? What are 'rules of engagement' and who formulates them? How can an autonomous weapon system be bound by the law of armed conflict? Why were the Guantánamo military commissions a failure? This book takes students through these LOACIHL questions and more, employing real-world examples and legal opinions from the US and abroad. From Nuremberg to 9/11, from courts-martial to the US Supreme Court, from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, the law of war is explained, interpreted, and applied.

This book introduces students to the essential questions of the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law.

Foreword; Preface; Part I. Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War: 1. Rules of war, laws of war; 2. Codes, conventions, declarations, and regulations; 3. Two World Wars and their law of armed conflict results; 4. Protocols and politics; Part II. Law of Armed Conflict and International Humanitarian Law: A Framework: 5. Conflict status; 6. Individual battlefield status; 7. Law of armed conflict's four core principles; 8. What is a 'war crime'?; Part III. Law of Armed Conflict and International Humanitarian Law: Battlefield Issues: 9. Obedience to orders, the first defense; 10. Command responsibility and respondeat superior; 11. Ruses and perfidy; 12. Rules of engagement; 13. Targeting objects; 14. Autonomous weapons, drones, and targeted killing; 15. Human targeting and cross-border counter-attacks; 16. Torture; 17. Cyberwarfare; 18. Attacks on cultural property; 19. The 1980 certain conventional weapons convention; 20. Gas, biological, and chemical weapons treaties; Part IV. Dealing with Violations of Customs and Usages of Warfare: 21. Military commissions; 22. Security detention.