Dear Colleagues,
Two long-standing friends of Blue Shield have just published a most
important review of what should nowadays be regarded as "customary"
international law, binding on all whether or not a country is a State
Party to any particular international treaty.
These are Jean-Marie Henckaerts of the Legal Division of the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and Professor Louise Doswald-Beck of
the University Centre for International Humanitarian Law, Geneva, and a
former colleague of Jean-Marie in the ICRC Legal Division. Louise and
Jean-Marie formed the very active official Red Cross delegation to the
March 1999 Diplomatic Conference in The Hague which adopted the second
Protocol (which came into force in March 2004) to the 1954 Hague
Convention on the Peotection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed
Conflict. Both were very active and supportive of the need to involve in
the new Second Protocol regime and procedures the relevant professional
non-governmental bodies including ICOM, as coordinated through the
International Committee of the Blue Shield.
After what I understand has been more than seven years work following a
request from the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross/Red
Crescent, with the assistance of many other experts, they have analysed
all aspects of international humanitarian law (otherwise often referred to
as the law of armed conflict). The aim was to identify those general
practices which should be regarded as customary international law, defined
by the International Court of Justice in 1969 and 1985 as "a general
practice accepted as law" - and hence which must be respected by all
States, whether or not they have formally adopted any particular
international treaty.
The study has just been published in a 676 page book:
Jean-Marie Henckaerts & Louise Doswald-Beck, 2005. "Customary
International Humanitarian Law. volume 1: Rules" (Cambridge University
Press).
The paperback edition is priced in the UK at GBP 27.99, though (as usual!)
American Internet bookshops (though not Amazon, for some reason) seem to
be able to offer a discount of around 30% against the UK price.
The book summarises the findings in a total of 161 clearly stated Rules
(which - have to say - are often very much clear and easier to understand
than the treaties or other sources from which they are derived).
Within these Rules, 38 to 41 inclusive set out the Customary International
Law relating to Cultural Property, in addition to the wider principle of
the obligation to protect from attack all civilian objectives. There is
also an important section (Rules 43 - 45) which argues that there is a
similar obligation to protect the natural environment as well, even
though so far at least there has been no explicit treaty relating to this.
In addition to the book, Jean-Marie Henckaerts has contributed a 38 pages
summary of the study, including the 161 Rules, to the March 2005 issue of
the International Review of the Red Cross (vol. 87, No. 857), which can be
downloaded free of charge in PDF format from:
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/6AGK83/$File/CustoLaw_Study.pdf
Best wishes
Patrick
=====================
(Prof.) Patrick J. Boylan
(Professor Emeritus, City University London)
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