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8. Law of Armed Conflicts

1. General Works
2. Treaties and Related Documents
3. Travaux préparatoires
4. Commentaries
5. International Cases
6. International Organizations
7. Practice
8. Bibliographies
9. Periodicals
10. NGOs and Research Institutions


1. General Works

  • Lauterpacht, H., Oppenheim’s International Law: volume II, Disputes, War and Neutrality, 7th edition, 1952.
  • Rousseau, Ch., Le droit des conflits armés, Pedone, 1983.
  • Frits Kalshoven & Liesbeth Zegveld, Constraints on the waging of war: an introduction to international humanitarian law, 3rd ed., ICRC 2001.
  • Fleck, D., The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts, Oxford UP, 2nd ed, 2008.
  • Eric David, Principes de droit des conflits armés, Bruylant, 4e ed, 2008.

2. Treaties and Related Documents


3. Travaux préparatoires

3.1 The Hague Peace Conferences

3.1.1 The 1989 Conference

3.1.2 The 1907 Conference

3.1.3. Index to documents of the two conferences:

3.2 The Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949

3.3 The Diplomatic Conference of Geneva, 1974-1977

  • Official Documents
  • Privately edited travaux préparatoires
    • Protection of war victims: Protocol 1 to the 1949 Geneva conventions / [edited] by Howard S. Levie, Oceana Publications, 4 v.
    • Law of non-international armed conflict : Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva conventions / edited by Howard S. Levie, M. Nijhoff, 1987.
      - Useful compilations of documents, which sort relevant documents according to articles of the two protocols. They do not, however, include records which are not reflected in the protocols as adopted.

4. Commentaries

  • ICRC Commentaries: http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf
    • The Geneva conventions of 12 August 1949. Commentary/ ed. by Pictet,J.S., ICRC, 1952-60, 4v. [Original: French]
    • Commentary on the additional protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 / by Claude Pilloud, Yves Sandoz, Christophe Swinarski, Bruno Zimmermann, Nijhoff, 1987.
  • Other Commentaries
    • New rules for victims of armed conflicts : commentary on the two 1977 protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 / by Michael Bothe, Karl Josef Partsch, Waldemar A. Solf, Nijhoff, 1982.
    • The protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict : commentary on the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its protocol, signed on 14 May, 1954 in the Hague, and on other instruments of international law concerning such protection / Jiri Toman, Dartmouth, 1996.
    • The Law of naval warfare: a collection of agreements and documents with Commentaries / N. Ronzitti, Nijhoff, 1988

5. International Cases

-> see also 2. International Courts and Tribunals

  • International Military Tribunals established after the World War II
    • IMT (Nremberg): Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal : Proceedings Volumes (The Blue Series)
    • Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10 (The Green Series)
    • IMTFE (Tokyo): No Official Materials have been published
      • Judgments and Selected Documents
        • Neil Boister & Robert Cryer,Documents on the Tokyo International Military Cribunal: Charter, Indictment and Judments, OUP 2008
      • Record Proceedings (privately edited)
        • The Tokyo war crimes trial, annotated, compiled and edited by R. John Pritchard & Sonia Magbanua Zaide, Garland Pub., 1981, 27 vols.
        • R. John Pritchard, ed., The Tokyo Major War Crimes Trial: The Records of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East , Edwin Mellen Press, 1998-2005, 124 vols.
    • Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals (Selected and prepared by the United Nations War Crimes Commission )
      Reprint Version, 15 v., Hein, 1997-: http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/law-reports-trials-war-criminals.html
  • Domestic case law: http://www.icrc.org/ihl-nat

6. Intergovernmental Organizations


7. Practice

7.1 Domestic Laws Compilations

7.2 Military Manuals


8. Bibliographies

  • Bibliography of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts, 2nd ed., ICRC & Henry Dunant Institute, 1987.
  • Fleck, D., The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts, Oxford UP, 2nd ed, 2008, pp.725-758.
  • Ingrid Detter, The Law of War, Cambridge UP, 2000, pp.443-492.
  • Eric David, Principes de droit des conflits armes, 4e ed, 2008, pp.1047-1073.
  • Robert Kolb, Ius in bello: Le droit international des conflits armés: Precis, 2e Edition, Helbing Lichtenhahn/ Bruylant, 2009, pp.499-551.

9. Periodicals


10. NGOs and Research Institutions