Is International Humanitarian Law Lapsing into Irrelevance in the War on International Terror?
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Dan Belz
This article uses an economic narrative to examine the theoretical adequacy of applying humanitarian law to the regulation of the war on international terror. I will argue that problems inherent in collective action hinder the ability of this law to generate an optimal level of global security, and that the absence of the element of reciprocity lowers states’ compliance with it. The paper discusses factors such as audience costs, negative externalities of public conscience, NGOs’ activities, and the promotion of the humanitarian approach toward humanitarian law in international bodies and courts as helping to mitigate these phenomena. A controversy between states concerning the application of humanitarian law to the war on international terror, however, might prevent these factors from offsetting the decline in the status of humanitarian law. Humanitarian law is therefore at risk of lapsing into irrelevance in this war.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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- Iraq and the Use of Force: Do the Side-Effects Justify the Means?
- Ends, Means, Side-Effects, and Beyond: A Comment on the Justification of the Use of Force
- Off Limits? International Law and the Excessive Use of Force
- Excessive Force in War: A "Golden Rule" Test
- Is International Humanitarian Law Lapsing into Irrelevance in the War on International Terror?
- Use of Force in Protecting Property
- Excessive Use of Force as a Means of Social Exclusion: The Forced Eviction of Squatters in Israel
- The Use of Force Beyond the Liberal Imagination: Terror and Empire in Palestine, 1947
- Justification Between Positivism and Decision
- Divine Spirit and Physical Power: Rabbi Shlomo Goren and the Military Ethic of the Israel Defense Forces
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Power in War
- Iraq and the Use of Force: Do the Side-Effects Justify the Means?
- Ends, Means, Side-Effects, and Beyond: A Comment on the Justification of the Use of Force
- Off Limits? International Law and the Excessive Use of Force
- Excessive Force in War: A "Golden Rule" Test
- Is International Humanitarian Law Lapsing into Irrelevance in the War on International Terror?
- Use of Force in Protecting Property
- Excessive Use of Force as a Means of Social Exclusion: The Forced Eviction of Squatters in Israel
- The Use of Force Beyond the Liberal Imagination: Terror and Empire in Palestine, 1947
- Justification Between Positivism and Decision
- Divine Spirit and Physical Power: Rabbi Shlomo Goren and the Military Ethic of the Israel Defense Forces
