ABSTRACT

Despite recent hard earned experience during international and non-international armed conflicts in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, and in peacekeeping missions around the world,1 the international community continues to struggle practically and conceptually with detention of belligerents. The struggle includes questions ranging from when individuals may be detained and for how long, to determining the applicable legal regime. While this myriad of issues is vexing, they are neither as new,2 nor the applicable law as lacking,3 as has been argued.