Introduction

A quarter of a century ago, the law of armed conflict, also known as international humanitarian law, was considered an esoteric area of international law – the domain of military lawyers, the International Committee of the Red Cross (and the global Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement) and those few academics interested in the subject matter. Very few universities in the world offered courses in the field and there was relatively little popular awareness of the legal regulation of armed conflict. The transformation has been spectacular and several factors have contributed to the ‘mainstreaming’ of this area of international law.