Summary
The impressive evidence of torture of detainees held in the 'war' on terror adds to the case for strengthening the rules relating to detention. Since detention can occur in many kinds of situation, and not only in international war or civil war, a new convention would not necessarily fit tidily in the category of the laws of war, andmight need to be negotiated underNATO, theUNas well as the Red Cross.
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Extract
Changing War, Changing Law
tHE ATTEMPT BY LEGAL AGREEMENT to limit the inhumanity and destructiveness of war is a difficult enterprise. Clausewitz expressed the perennial doubt about the project when, in his classic On War, he referred to 'certain self-imposed, imperceptible limitations hardly worth mentioning, known as international law and custom.' Two centuries later, such doubts persist about the laws of war - now more commonly called international humanitarian law - so what exactly is there to celebrate?
THREE CHEERSThe four 1949 conventions address a li...See the full content of this document
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