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Newly revised and updated, The Law of Armed Conflict, introduces students 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 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? Featuring new chapters, this book takes students through these topics 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 with clarity and depth.
List of contents
Foreword; Preface and acknowledgments; Table of cases; Table of treaties; 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; 5. Conflict status; 6. Individual battlefield status; 7. Law of armed conflict's core principles; 8. What is a 'war crime'? 9. Obedience to orders, the first defense; 10. Command responsibility; 11. Ruses and perfidy; 12. Rules of engagement; 13. Targeting objects; 14. Targeting combatants and others; 15. A.I., Autonomous weapons, drones, and targeted killing; 16. Torture; 17. Cyber in the law of armed conflict; 18. Attacks on cultural property; 19. The 1980 certain conventional weapons convention; 20. Gas, biological, chemical and nuclear weapons; 21. Military commissions; 22. Security detention and internment.
About the author
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).
Summary
This book introduces law students and undergraduates to the law of war in an age of terrorism. Gary D. Solis, who has more than twenty years of experience teaching these subjects, leads readers from the basics of armed conflict and international humanitarian law to the finer points of battlefield law.
