ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the pillars on which international humanitarian law stands. It presents various shortcomings in the law and considers from whence they arise, whether they justify its amendment, and whether any such amendment is possible without undermining the law's foundations. The chapter sets out what solutions may be found in humanitarian law itself, the limits of that law and the consequences that must be recognised in terms of international law and its institutions. International humanitarian law does not oppose war. International humanitarian law rests on the willingness of the warring parties to consider inviolable the principles on which it was founded. The basic principle of military necessity leads directly to a second pillar of international humanitarian law: the principle of distinction. Problems obviously arose when it began to appear in certain circumstances that the principle of distinction no longer automatically dovetailed with the principle of necessity, but rather conflicted with it.
