Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- Preface
- Table of cases
- Table of treaties
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The general framework
- 2 Lawful combatancy
- 3 Prohibited weapons
- 4 Lawful targets of attack
- 5 Protection from attack of civilians and civilian objects
- 6 Measures of special protection from attack
- 7 Protection of the environment
- 8 Specific methods of warfare
- 9 War crimes, orders, command responsibility and defences
- General conclusions
- Index of persons
- Index of subjects
4 - Lawful targets of attack
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- Preface
- Table of cases
- Table of treaties
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The general framework
- 2 Lawful combatancy
- 3 Prohibited weapons
- 4 Lawful targets of attack
- 5 Protection from attack of civilians and civilian objects
- 6 Measures of special protection from attack
- 7 Protection of the environment
- 8 Specific methods of warfare
- 9 War crimes, orders, command responsibility and defences
- General conclusions
- Index of persons
- Index of subjects
Summary
Military objectives and combatants
The basic rule
218. The requirement of distinction between combatants and civilians – as well as between military objectives and civilian objects – is underscored in Article 48 of Additional Protocol I, entitled ‘[b]asic rule’:
the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.
In 2005, the Eritrea—Ethiopia Claims Commission found Article 48 to be an expression of customary international law. The basic rule has two parts. One is its protective aspect, granting an exemption from attack to civilians and civilian objects. But no less important is the corresponding exposure to attack of combatants and military objectives.
Military objectives
219. The coinage ‘military objectives’ first came into use in the (non-binding) Hague Rules of Air Warfare. From 1923 on, references to military objectives got gradually absorbed into the texts of binding treaties (see infra 220). Today, ‘the principle of the military objective has become a part of customary international law for armed conflict’ whether on land, at sea or in the air.
220. The phrase ‘military objective’ was used in a peripheral manner in the 1949 Geneva Conventions548 (which failed to define it), as well as the 1954 Hague Cultural Property Convention. It took centre stage in Article 52(2) of Additional Protocol I, which defines it as follows:
Attacks shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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