Introduction

Hilaire McCoubrey and I collaborated extensively during his time at Hull, producing a co-authored book and a number of journal articles. Though identified with different disciplines and working in different departments, our work together benefited immeasurably from our shared view of the way in which the world works, particularly the complex interplay between legal and political issues. A prodigious legal scholar, Hilaire was also acutely sensitive to the broader political context within which legal mechanisms operate. He understood international law to be a process through which states seek political objectives, while at the same time operating to shape the nature of such objectives and the means through which they might be pursued. I am indebted to Hilaire for the wisdom and knowledge he shared with me, and it is a matter of great sadness and regret that his untimely death deprived the field of international humanitarian law of one of its leading scholars and more personally the opportunity for the two of us to realize our plans for future joint ventures.

This chapter draws in part on the McCoubrey Memorial Lecture which I was honoured to deliver in May 2003, though it has been significantly amended to account for changed context and intervening events. In the broadest sense it seeks to shed light on issues raised by many of the other contributors to this volume, particularly those discussed by Nigel White, though as befitting our respective disciplinary foci, it does so from a somewhat different perspective.