Article

State-building, occupation and international law : friends of foes ?

Jan Wouters, Kenneth Chan

• Leuven centre for global governance studies working paper, No. 87, March 2012, 16 p.

English

Photocopies. - Bibliographie : p. 15-16

What role does the law of occupation play in the process of state-building ? Whilst the law of occupation presupposes that an occupying power will not restructure the operation and function of a state, but rather, will hold the status quo and ensure that the peoples of occupied territories are not subjected to further chaos, the contemporary practice of occupying powers today - particularly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq - seems to defy the non-transformational doctrines of international humanitarian law. So, to what extent does it still have relevance in the administration of post-conflict societies ? This chapter addresses the aptness of the law of occupation within contemporary understandings of state-building - and broadly considers question "is the law of occupation state-building".

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