Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- FOREWORD
- SAN REMO MANUAL
- EXPLANATION
- Introduction
- List of abbreviations
- Part I General provisions
- Part II Regions of operations
- Part III Basic rules and target discrimination
- Part IV Methods and means of warfare at sea
- Part V Measures short of attack: interception, visit, search, diversion and capture
- Part VI Protected persons, medical transports and medical aircraft
- INDEX
Part I - General provisions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- FOREWORD
- SAN REMO MANUAL
- EXPLANATION
- Introduction
- List of abbreviations
- Part I General provisions
- Part II Regions of operations
- Part III Basic rules and target discrimination
- Part IV Methods and means of warfare at sea
- Part V Measures short of attack: interception, visit, search, diversion and capture
- Part VI Protected persons, medical transports and medical aircraft
- INDEX
Summary
Section I Scope of application of the law
The parties to an armed conflict at sea are bound by the principles and rules of international humanitarian law from the moment armed force is used.
1.1 International humanitarian law, as defined in paragraph 13 of this document, applies to all armed conflicts from the moment that force is used and therefore its application does not depend on a ‘state of war’ nor on attaining a particular threshold of intensity of the hostilities. Reference in this regard can be made to the ICRC Commentary to Article 2 of the Geneva Conventions which defines the use of the word ‘armed conflict’ for the purposes of the application of the law as follows:
Any difference arising between two States and leading to the intervention of members of the armed forces is an armed conflict within the meaning of Article 2, even if one of the Parties denies the existence of a state of war. It makes no difference how long the conflict lasts, or how much slaughter takes place.
The purpose for the application of the law from the moment that any force is used is in order to assure that the rules providing limits on the conduct of hostilities and protection for non-State parties and protected persons and objects are indeed implemented and that parties cannot absolve themselves of these rules by denying that an armed conflict exists.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at SeaInternational Institute of Humanitarian Law, pp. 73 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995