Contemporary legal doctrine on proportionality in armed conflicts : a select review / Ben Clarke
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Article
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Contemporary legal doctrine on proportionality in armed conflicts : a select review
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Ben Clarke
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English
Abstract:
In an attempt to impose limits on the level of acceptable incidental civilian suffering during armed conflict, international humanitarian law (IHL) articulates a proportionality formula as the test to determine whether or not an attack is lawful. Efforts to comply with that formula during the conduct of hostilities can involve a host of legal and operational challenges. A recent international conference in Jerusalem, co-sponsored by the delegation of the ICRC in Israel and the Occupied Territories and the Minerva center for human rights at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem, brought together human rights lawyers, military experts and scholars form a variety of disciplines to assess recent developments relating to the proportionality principle in international humanitarian law. This report examines ten conference presentations which offer important insights into: the nature, scope of application and operational requirements of the proportionality principle under IHL; the modalities of investigation and review of proportionality decisions or the challenges involved in proportionality decision-making.
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