Chapter

The law of occupation

Philip Spoerri

The Oxford handbook of international law in armed conflict

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014

p. 182-205

English

In many recent volatile situations, the law of occupation has been responsive to the challenges at hand, in particular those relating to humanitarian emergencies, arising from the effective control of a territory - or part thereof - by foreign forces. Yet, the applicability and application of the law of occupation to such contexts also raises a number of legal issues. In this respect, several important questions are of concern including the beginning and end of occupation, the delimitation of the rights and duties of the Occupying Power (including the highly debated issue of transformative occupation and the sensitive topic of prolonged occupation), as well as the interaction between the law of occupation and human rights law or the legal framework governing the use of force in occupied territory.This chapter addresses a few selected issues which, from the author’s perspective, have had particularly important operational implications on the ground insofar as their legal dimension may have a direct impact on the population living in a territory subject to the effective control of a foreign army.

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• The Oxford handbook of international law in armed conflict / ed. by Andrew Clapham and Paola Gaeta ; assistant ed.: Tom Haeck, Alice Priddy