Chapter

Recueil

Means and methods of combat

BLIX, Hans

International dimensions of humanitarian law

Geneva : Henry Dunant Institute;Paris : UNESCO;Dordrecht [etc.] : M. Nijhoff, 1988

p. 135-151

English

This article discusses Part III of Additional Protocol I, which covers methods and means of warfare. The author explains that the underlying rationale for restraints on warfare is that parties to a conflict are limited in their choice of methods or means of warfare. He highlights the challenge of interpreting the restraints on superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. He elucidates the principle that it is unlawful to use a weapon which causes more suffering than another weapon that offers equivalent military advantage. He explains the principle of distinction and its role in creating recent bans on terror, starvation, and bombardment. Two threats to the principle of distinction are intended to be averted by article 57: inadequate confirmation of objectives as military, and pursuit of military objectives with excessive incidental effects upon civilians. The first threat can be avoided where military commanders exercise greater precaution in choosing targets and provide “effective advance warning” where feasible. The second threat is addressed by the important, though controversial, inclusion of the rule of proportionality. Lastly, the author highlights the Protocol’s environmental provisions and explains that these provisions ban methods or means of warfare that threaten “wide-spread, long-term, and severe damage” to the environment. [Summary by students at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law (IHRP)]

• International dimensions of humanitarian law / Institut Henry-Dunant, UNESCO