The Law of Armed Conflict International Humanitarian Law in War

Chapter 19 covers a critical 1980 Convention involving battlefield weapons and practices. Some weapons have long been banned: bayonets with serrated edges, explosive bullets, and poison, for example. The 1980 Convention addresses five weapon types through five protocols. Looking to Chapter 7’s core principle of distinction, Protocol I bans nondetectable fragments: glass bullets that cannot be detected by x-rays in casualty treatment. Protocol II limits (but does not ban) antipersonnel land mines and booby-traps. Both are banned in areas frequented by civilians but continue to be allowed elsewhere. Examples of their limited uses are provided. The “Ottawa Convention,” banning antipersonnel mines entirely, is also covered. Protocol III limits use of incendiary weapons, banning their use on targets where civilians might be present. Protocol IV bans blinding laser weapons. Nonblinding lasers are unaffected. Protocol V requires ratifying states to retrieve unexploded ordnance, land mines, cluster munitions, dud artillery rounds, at the conflict’s conclusion. All good intentions that are difficult to put into practice, aided by language that invites evasion. But better than nothing.