11 April 2022, 18:00-19:30
Military Briefings
Xin Qiao
Among the many aspects of warfare it aims to regulate, international humanitarian law (IHL) establishes rules on what kind of weapons can be used on the battlefield, and how they can be used.
This is usually referred to as the prohibitions or restrictions regarding the ‘means of warfare’. In general, IHL prohibits any weapon ‘of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering’, or weapons that may have indiscriminate or excessively injurious effects--this includes biological and chemical weapons, as well as landmines to a certain extent. But while some weapons are banned altogether, some are authorized under certain circumstances. In practice, this area of the law regulating armed conflicts involves a variety of international legal instruments, ranging from the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols to specific sectoral conventions. Accordingly, given its critical impact on the battlefield, it is crucial for IHL practitioners to understand this area of law.
This Military Briefing will give an overview of the applicable legal frameworks and the contemporary challenges in this area and will also focus on recent events in the armed conflict in Ukraine.
A Captain in the French Navy reserve, Eric Steinmyller is currently the head of the Coast Guard division for the Atlantic Ocean's French area of responsibility. He is in charge of all law enforcement issues in this area, including regarding drug trafficking, piracy, illicit fishing, protection of the environment, as well as search and rescue operations. Prior to this assignment, Mr Steinmyller had a long career in the French armed forces, where he most notably served as head of the law of armed conflict section at the French Ministry of Defense, and as military adviser to the French ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament. He joined a private shipping company in 2013 as a security and safety manager. Since 2016, he is also working as a consultant and lecturer on IHL and Law of the Sea for several military and civilian institutions, especially in the Middle East.
Military Briefings are a unique series of events relating to military institutions and the law. They aim to improve our students’ knowledge of military actors and operations and build bridges between the military and civilian worlds.
Tingey Injury Law Firm, Unsplash
Dr Jelena Plamenac and Charlotte Labrosse received prestigious distinctions at the 2022 Annual meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) in April this year.
Cameron Kays
Students of our LLM in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Human Rights (LLM) and MAS in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law (MTJ) spent a week in the Balkans – Belgrade, Sarajevo and Srebrenica – where they met experts and institutions who work in the fields of IHL, human rights and transitional justice.
UN Photo
This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, analyses the main international and regional norms governing the international protection of refugees. It notably examines the sources of international refugee law, including the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and their interaction with human rights law and international humanitarian law.
ICRC
This online short course will examine the sources of international humanitarian law (IHL), as well as the threshold criteria for its applicability in an armed conflict
Medical Aid for Palestinians / Ezz Al Zanoon
This project aimed to ensure better protection of and assistance for persons with disabilities in situations of armed conflict or its aftermath by identifying legal obligations to protect and assist persons with disabilities during conflict, and the policies and practices required to put these obligations into effect.
Shutterstock
This project will explore humanitarian consequences and protection needs caused by the digitalization of armed conflicts and the extent to which these needs are addressed by international law, especially international humanitarian law.