Treaty rules governing the classification of armed conflicts have been said to give rise to problems in both theory and .practice. This requires examination, as classification determines the specific set of ius in bello rules which must be applied to a particular armed conflict. If classification rules are problematic, the treaty and/or customary rules critical to the protection of victims and the conduct of hostilities may not be applied. This thesis first examines the treaty classification system to determine its legal coherence and practical workability. Each category within this system is considered in order to identify the criteria and sub-criteria which need to be satisfied for cl situation to fall within it. In doing so, treaty negotiation records and commentaries, State practice, court judgments and commentators' writings are analyzed. The thesis also investigates whether certain types of armed conflicts fall outside the current system. Second, it determines whether there is a customary classification system, an issue which rarely receives attention. It is also examined for legal coherence and practical workability. . It is concluded that, in the main, the treaty classification system is legally coherent and workable in practice, although there are legal grey areas which require attention. It also concludes that there is a customary classification system, albeit one which is still emerging. Although this system clearly recognizes a distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts, whether there is more than one threshold for non-international armed conflicts is unclear. In addition, some of the criteria and sub-criteria are not clearly ascertainable, and their scope is also frequently unclear. These issues notwithstanding, assertions that the treaty classification system is inherently problematic are argued to be unfounded. The reluctance by some States to acknowledge that they are engaged in particular types of armed conflicts leads to a proposal that an independent, authoritative and contemporaneous mechanism for classification determination is desirable.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:701646 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Szesnat, Felicity |
| Publisher | University of Essex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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