The Rule of Law in Crisis and Conflict Grey Zones: Regulating the Use of Force in a Global Information Environment

This book responds to ongoing calls for clarification and consensus regarding the meaning, scope and interplay of humanitarian law and human rights law in the `grey zones' of unconventional operational environments such as counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations. It contributes to the debate in this area by developing objective criteria for determining where the shift from the legal framework of law enforcement to that of non-international armed conflict occurs in relation to targeting law and weaponry law; by developing improved objective criteria for determining what constitutes direct participation in hostilities and de facto membership in an organised armed group; by taking stock of how existing targeting and weaponry rules are being applied to unconventional conflicts within civilian populated areas by key state players as well as by international and regional human rights mechanisms; by arguing for the progressive realisation of targeting and weaponry law so that they are more fitting for operational environments that are increasingly urbanised and civilianised; by seeking to understand how global networked connectivity may affect our understanding of the operational theatre of war and the geographical reach of the legal framework of non-international armed conflict.

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Table of Cases

Table of International Treaties, Statutes and Protocols

List of Figures

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Avoiding The Strategic Costs of Civilian Harm Through the Effective Use Of Force

Chapter 1

The Contemporary Theatre of Operations

Chapter 2

A General Critique of IHL Targeting And Weaponry Norms and Institutions

Chapter 3

Reconceptualising the Regulation of the Use Of Force in Situations of Crisis and Unconventional Conflict: Enhanced contextual status determination

Chapter 4

Reconceptualising the Regulation of the Use Of Force in Situations of Crisis and Unconventional Conflict: Individual status determination

Chapter 5

Towards a clearer framework for distinguishing those who participate directly in hostilities from those who are to be protected as civilians: extrapolating models of accessorial liability and co-perpetration in the commission of harmful acts

Chapter 6

Reconceptualising Targeting and Weaponry Law for the Unconventional Theatre of Operations

Chapter 7

Weaponry law: Emerging Approaches to the Regulation of Means of Warfare and Law Enforcement

Chapter 8

Regulating Military Operations Abroad: the Extraterritorial Effect of Human Rights and the potential Modalities of Parallel Application of the Right to Life under Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law

Chapter 9

Conclusions : Grey Zones of War and Peace in Our Globally Networked Information Environment

Bibliography

Index