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The Geographical Reach of International Humanitarian Law in Transnational Armed Conflict

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Elliot WinterORCiD

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Brill Nijhoff, 2021.

For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.


Abstract

Non-international armed conflicts between States and organised armed groups are a reality of warfare. Since the emergence of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, these conflicts have been regulated by international humanitarian law. However, a subset of this category known as transnational armed conflict has seen aggressive proliferation over recent decades as groups such as ISIS have taken advantage of the internet and other technologies to expand their reach beyond national frontiers and strike States around the world. This phenomenon has left the geographical extent of international humanitarian law – which has historically relied on State boundaries to determine its ambit – unclear. This article examines the main options for delimiting the geographical reach of the regime in transnational armed conflicts. It considers approaches based on international boundaries; ‘hot battlefields’; global application and territorial control before ultimately concluding that a method based on ‘military presence’ would be the most suitable standard.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Winter E

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Nordic Journal of International Law

Year: 2021

Volume: 90

Issue: 3

Pages: 292-304

Online publication date: 12/10/2021

Acceptance date: 27/01/2021

Date deposited: 08/02/2021

ISSN (print): 0902-7351

ISSN (electronic): 1571-8107

Publisher: Brill Nijhoff

URL: https://brill.com/view/journals/nord/90/3/article-p292_292.xml


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