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Public International Law

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International Humanitarian Action

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Abstract

Public international law (PIL) today directly or indirectly impacts on every aspect of human life and is very much of a concern to professionals in a diverse range of specialisations, including in the field of humanitarian action. Regulations relating to human rights standards, the status of refugees, protection of victims of armed conflicts, international crimes, access to vulnerable populations in case of natural disasters, environmental matters, global communications, dispute resolution and management of interstate crises, among many others, all make up the realm of PIL. This chapter focuses on those aspects of PIL that establish the international legal framework of humanitarian action. It identifies the particular characteristics of PIL that distinguish it from national law of States, as well as the main concepts and notions it shares with all specific disciplines relevant to humanitarian action.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Shearer (1994), p. 3.

  2. 2.

    Sassòli et al. (2011).

  3. 3.

    M. Koskenniemi, What is international law for? In: Evans (2014), pp. 89–114, also including numerous bibliographical references.

  4. 4.

    Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, UNTS, Vol. 78, No. 277, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%2078/volume-78-I-1021-English.pdf. There are 147 States parties to this Convention.

  5. 5.

    See: Advisory Opinion on Reservations to the Convention on Genocide, I.C.J. Rep. 1951, p. 15, at 23; Judgment in Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co. (Belgium v. Spain), I.C.J. Rep. 1970, p. 3, at 32.

  6. 6.

    Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, UN General Assembly Resolution 56/83 of 12 December 2001, annex, http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/draft_articles/9_6_2001.pdf, Arts. 28–39.

  7. 7.

    Charter of the United Nations, adopted in San Francisco on 26th June 1945, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CTC/uncharter.pdf, Art. 6. The procedure of expulsion is construed in a manner that no State can be expelled against the will of one of the five permanent member States of the UN Security Council. Such an expulsion has never taken place.

  8. 8.

    Id., Arts. 41–42.

  9. 9.

    See: Advisory opinions on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, I.C.J. Rep. 1996, p. 226; Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, I.C.J. Rep. 2004, p. 136; and judgments in: Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. USA), I.C.J. Rep. 1986, p. 14; Cases Concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro as well as Croatia v. Serbia), I.C.J. Rep. 2007, p. 43 and I.C.J. Rep. 2015, p. 118.

  10. 10.

    The Statute of the ICJ is annexed to the UN Charter, of which it forms an integral part.

  11. 11.

    European Convention on Human Rights, European Treaty Series No. 005, http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf.

  12. 12.

    Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 2187, No. 38544, http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ShowMTDSGDetails.aspx?src=UNTSONLINE&tabid=2&mtdsg_no=XVIII-10&chapter=18&lang=en.

  13. 13.

    See for details: S. Blay, The nature of international law, in: Blay and Piotrowicz (2005), pp. 6–21, including numerous bibliographical references.

  14. 14.

    See for details: Crawford (2012), pp. 58–70, including numerous bibliographical references.

  15. 15.

    Advisory Opinion on Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, I.C.J. Rep. 1949, p. 174, at 178.

  16. 16.

    These criteria were defined in the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States of 1933, 165 League of Nations Treaty Series, p. 19. Although ratified by only 16 States, the Convention has acquired a meaningful influence on the interpretation of the notion of statehood.

  17. 17.

    See annual reports, http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org.

  18. 18.

    Crawford (2012), pp. 681–682.

  19. 19.

    Out of approximately 58,000 international NGOs active in different fields of international relations, there are about 260 registered with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)—http://www.uia.org.

  20. 20.

    Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 1577, No. 27531, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201577/v1577.pdf.

  21. 21.

    For a link to the text of the UN Charter, see http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CTC/uncharter.pdf.

  22. 22.

    See: Preamble and Arts. 1, 55, 56, 62, 76 UN Charter.

  23. 23.

    There are 193 UN member States (as of 20th June 2016).

  24. 24.

    This organ does not function anymore as the international trusteeship system ended in 1994.

  25. 25.

    The UNSC may deal with humanitarian crises caused by an armed conflict while the ICJ may analyse legal issues of relevance for humanitarian action.

  26. 26.

    Art. 62(2) UN Charter.

  27. 27.

    Geneva Conventions, UNTS, Vol. 75, Nos. 970–973, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%2075/volume-75-I-970-English.pdf, et sqq.; Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions, UNTS, Vol. 1125, Nos. 17512–17513, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201125/volume-1125-I-17512-English.pdf, et sq.

  28. 28.

    For details on the legal status of the ICRC, including numerous bibliographical references, see Sassòli et al. (2011), pp. 465–495.

  29. 29.

    Legal scholars distinguish these formal sources of PIL from material sources, but the relevant debate is of a rather theoretical character—see Crawford (2012), pp. 1–3; H. Thirlway, The Sources of International Law, in: Evans (2014), pp. 117–120 and the extensive lists of bibliographical references provided by these authors.

  30. 30.

    Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, UNTS, Vol. 1155, No. 18232, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201155/volume-1155-I-18232-English.pdf, Art. 2 (1)(a).

  31. 31.

    This convention has not yet entered into force, pending further State ratifications. Its text is available at: http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/1_2_1986.pdf.

  32. 32.

    UNTS, vol. 189, No. 2545, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20189/volume-189-I-2545-English.pdf.

  33. 33.

    UNTS, vol. 999, No. 14668, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20999/volume-999-I-14668-English.pdf.

  34. 34.

    UNTS, vol. 993, No. 14531, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20993/volume-993-I-14531-English.pdf.

  35. 35.

    UNTS, vol. 1465, No. 24841, http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201465/volume-1465-I-24841-English.pdf.

  36. 36.

    There is a sizeable number of publications on customary international law—for relevant references, see Thirlway (1972) and Wolfke (1964).

  37. 37.

    North Sea Continental Shelf Cases, Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1969, p. 3, at 43.

  38. 38.

    Advisory Opinion on Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, I.C.J. Rep. 1996, p. 226, at 31–32.

  39. 39.

    There are 196 States parties to the Geneva Conventions (as of 20 June 2016).

  40. 40.

    See for example UN General Assembly, Resolution 46/182 of 1991 on Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian emergency assistance, UN Doc. A/RES/46/182.

  41. 41.

    See for example UN Security Council, Resolution 827 of 1993, establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, UN Doc. S/RES/827.

  42. 42.

    Consider the regulations adopted by the Council of the European Union—see Art. 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Official Journal of the European Union, C 81/1 of 2010.

  43. 43.

    D.W. Greig, Sources of International Law, in: Blay and Piotrowicz (2005), pp. 85–90, including numerous bibliographical references.

  44. 44.

    UN General Assembly, Resolution 217 (III), UN Doc. A/RES/217(III).

  45. 45.

    D.W. Greig, Sources of International Law, in: Blay and Piotrowicz (2005), p. 88.

  46. 46.

    See for example Guidelines for the domestic facilitation and regulation of international disaster relief and initial recovery assistance, issued by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/idrl/idrl-guidelines.

  47. 47.

    For a link to the text of the VCLT, see http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201155/volume-1155-I-18232-English.pdf.

References

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Further Reading

  • Aust A (2010) Handbook of international law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

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  • Shaw MN (2014) International law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

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  • Spieker H (2015) The legal framework of humanitarian action. In: Gibbons P, Heintze H-J (eds) The humanitarian challenge. 20 years European Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA). Springer – NOHA, Heidelberg

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Elżbieta Mikos-Skuza

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  1. Elżbieta Mikos-Skuza
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Correspondence to Elżbieta Mikos-Skuza .

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  1. Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Hans-Joachim Heintze

  2. Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Pierre Thielbörger

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Mikos-Skuza, E. (2018). Public International Law. In: Heintze, HJ., Thielbörger, P. (eds) International Humanitarian Action. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14454-2_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14454-2_7

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