ABSTRACT
Violent conflict has inbuilt limiting factors,1 but formal conventions have grown in order to ensure ‘fair play’ and to try to impose a degree of moderation in warfare. Those who express scepticism about the existence of international law per se no doubt express even more scepticism about whether there can be laws of war. In fact war has historically been one of the most formal, almost ritualistic, forms of human interaction with complex customs and rules determining how it should be conducted. The Christian doctrine of the just war, for example, includes not only those principles which should govern resort to war (jus ad bellum) (see Chapter 7), but also those rules and moral tenets which should govern the conduct of war (jus in bello). The growth of ‘laws’ of war has emanated from the gradual development of these customary conventions. It was the developments in military technology consequent upon the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century that induced attempts to outlaw certain types of weapon. But it was the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 that began the codification of the rules and conventions governing the conduct of war. A number of key agreements subsequent to these constitute the essential laws of war which govern the conduct of all international war and even internal war.
