ABSTRACT
International humanitarian law, unlike most areas of domestic law, is not constantly in force. The authors use this foundational chapter to determine under what conditions, and to what extent IHL is applicable in a given type of conflict. Following a brief introduction, Part 2 begins by assessing IHL’s two legal triggers—Common Articles 2 and 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions—which each invoke separate bodies of law. The significance of the term “armed conflict” is then more fully discussed, as well as how exactly the nature of an armed conflict, be it inter-State or intra-State, affects the application of IHL. Part 3 then transitions to the impacts of the two 1977 Protocols Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and Part 4 concludes by discussing a few significant wrinkles in the traditional IHL application equation. This includes topics like external State intervention in an ongoing international armed conflict, situations questionably armed conflicts, transnational armed conflicts, and IHL’s intersection with international human rights law.
