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Chapter 3 orients the student to the basics of LOAC as it exists on today’s battlefields. It moves from long-past history to modern, even contemporary, history by relating today’s LOAC, along with its more recent historical foundations and modern law of war incidents. For example, World War I and the ineffective trials of German war criminals by German courts – the Leipzig trials – are shown to be the impetus for World War II’s Nuremberg and Tokyo international military tribunals. The LOAC import of the League of Nations and the Spanish Civil War are detailed, along with the 1929 Geneva Conventions’ (two Conventions) contributions. The bulk of the chapter is an examination of today’s four 1949 Geneva Conventions, including their “common articles,” the varied routes to the charging of war crimes alleged against both combatants and civilians, along with the significance of “grave breach” war crimes. Indicators of war crimes is detailed, as well.
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