The Law on the Conduct of Hostilities

Chapter 3 summarises the law as to the conduct of hostilities. The discussion is explicitly based on the law of targeting as it applies to the United Kingdom. Accordingly the focus is mainly on the law as provided for in Additional Protocol I, articles 48 to 67, although suitable references are also made e.g. to the US position. After stating the principle of distinction, notions of armed forces, of combatants and of civilians are defined and the protected status of the last is asserted. Objects are categorised into military objectives and civilian objects and the protection at law of the latter is stated. After explaining the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks, the next section considers the classes of person and object that are granted specifically protected status under the law, such as medical facilities and transports, cultural objects, objects indispensible to the survival of the civilian population, dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations. Attackers’ duties to take precautions and protections of demilitarized zones, of non-defended localities and of civil defence are addressed in ensuing sections and the Chapter concludes with explanations of the law as to human shields, reprisals and with an assessment of the customary law of targeting.