Fundamentals of the Law of Armed Conflict

The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) applies between parties to an armed conflict, be it an international armed conflict or non-international armed conflict (sometimes called an internal armed conflict). The subject of LOAC is therefore not when or if parties to a conflict have the right to resort to armed force - but the rules applicable between them if they do.

The use of armed force, unfortunately, remains characteristic for the international society. For the international community, it, therefore, remains a central question to what extent and in which manner armed force may be utilized once a conflict has escalated to the level of an armed conflict. And while much of the law rests on legal developments that took place in the aftermath of the second world war, technical and cultural development did not cease.

Technically the law is ever challenged by new methods of warfare. To mention but some examples:

• the use of over the horizon weapons have greatly expanded
• the use of drone technology has profoundly changed the nature of the battlefield
• the battlefield has been significantly extended by the addition of a cyber dimension
• the battlefield may again be changed by the introduction of artificial intelligence into man controlled, or entirely self-controlled, weapon systems.

International law has seen a significant rise of human rights law, also affecting all other fields - of course also LOAC. International criminal law has also seen significant developments, aimed among others at underpinning and strengthening LOAC. Significant attempts have furthermore been made at preserving human life and limit suffering, i.e. in the adoption of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction as well as the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Both conventions arguably resting on a changed view of the value of human life measured against military benefits. Both conventions also demonstrate the freedom States pursue under LOAC, non-signatories to both including some of the major actors on the international stage, and other States considering a withdrawal in order to enhance military capacity.

The Law of Armed Conflict exists in this constantly developing interplay between securing and safeguarding human lives and safeguarding the needs of freedom of action in the application of force. And when applicable, LOAC concerns a State¿s most fundamental interest; its survival. As such LOAC is therefore also one of the most interesting fields in which to study international law. For no field attempts more directly to regulate the core interests of the State and to balance two more competing interests; to safeguard the life and health of humans while also not unduly impeding military efficiency.

The Law of Armed Conflict is built around four principles: (i) Distinction between military and civilian targets, (ii) Proportionality, (iii) Military necessity and (iv) Limitations. The course will focus on these basic principles in depth.

As LOAC applies in situations where life is routinely taken, and suffering routinely caused, LOAC is also fraught with ethical dilemmas. The role of ethics in the determination of the law, as well as its implications for professionals working in the field of LOAC, must thus be addressed and discussed.

In relation to the program description for MAJUR, the course will

• Help students build an understanding of how national law and national decision making is affected by international law
• Help students gain a deeper understanding of how legal methodology may vary between different disciplines of law
• Emphasize the role of lawyers also in conflict situations and put to the forefront the deep ethical considerations that affect the determination of the law and how these may explain different views of the law
• Help students understand how the law is affected by the development of new technologies
• Broaden the range of sources familiar to students
• Sharpen their ability to make an independent, critical and ethical assessment of what the law on any matter is
• Sharpen their ability to apply the law to fields which may not have been considered when central sources were created
• Broaden their competence to cooperate with lawyers from a different cultural background
• Broaden their ability to cooperate in interdisciplinary teams and benefit in their legal analysis from cross-disciplinary information

Knowledge

After successfully completing the course students will have a general knowledge of

• Why States resort to armed conflict in their international relations
• When international law permits the use of force
• The historical development of LOAC
• Different levels of conflict and the application of LOAC
• The relationship between LOAC and International Criminal Law

After successfully completing the course students will be familiar with

• The method and sources of international law, with particular emphasis on questions and differences that arise in LOAC
• The four central principles of LOAC
• The meaning and importance of status as a combatant, non-combatant and civilians
• The limitations LOAC presents on means and methods of armed conflict
• The rules concerning protected persons and objects

Skills

After completing the course, the student should be able to identify, reflect upon, address and formulate a reasoned opinion on issues that fall under LOAC.

This entails that students must be able to

• identify, and formulate LOAC issues based on comprehensive and complex facts
• find and address relevant sources of law, and carry out legal analysis of LOAC issues based on primary and secondary sources in a balanced way
• identify sound position through clarification of tensions between different types of arguments that are valid under international law
• identify ethical impacts on the determination of law, particularly in the field of study

The student must also be able to convey and evaluate legal analyzes and points of view in the LOAC context through

• systematically prepared independent written analyzes
• orally present legal argumentation
• to comment on and evaluate other students' analyzes and to receive and make use of such comments
• to work with others in groups to analyze LOAC issues

General competence

After completion of the course, students shall have

• an understanding of LOAC as a separate discipline of international law
• have insight in LOAC's place in international law and how it works in conjunction with and is affected by other disciplines of international law (like international human rights law and international criminal law), as well as how it works in conjunction with national law
• recognize and work within a field of law where sources are fragmented and to some degree dated