Uganda Christian University School of Law International Humanitarian Law Course

Contents hide

1 Uganda Christian University School of Law International Humanitarian Law Course

1.1 Uganda Christian University Bachelor of Laws Courses For Year 1

1.2 Uganda Christian University Bachelor of Laws Courses For Year 2

1.3 Uganda Christian University Bachelor of Laws Courses For Year 3

1.4 Uganda Christian University Bachelor of Laws Courses For Year 4

1.5 [button link=”https://ugfacts.net/list-law-schools-uganda/” bg_color=”red”]List of Law Schools in Uganda[/button]

Uganda Christian University School of Law International Humanitarian Law Course

UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF LAW

BACHELOR OF LAWS PROGRAMME

Course Title	International Humanitarian Law
Course Code	BLAW ………….	Credit Hours	75 (Seventy five) (Sixty teaching hours, fifteen hrs for research)
Contact Hours	……………………..	Core / Elective	Elective

Course Description

This course explores the development and operation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which is the body of public international law that regulates conduct during armed conflict. Although IHL is the expression most widely used, the same body of law is often, and more correctly, referred to as Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), and occasionally referred to as Law of War or as Jus in Bello.

International humanitarian law is the body of law that regulates armed conflict. It seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by regulating the means and methods of warfare and by protecting persons who are not or are no longer participating in the hostilities.

IHL has long been a part of public international law, but has only been subject to treaty since the end of the 19^th century. Traditionally, conventional IHL has been divided into the Law of the Hague (concerned with methods and means of warfare) and the Law of Geneva (concerned with protection of victims of war). While most IHL treaties were designed to regulate armed conflict between states (international armed conflict), the trend in 21^st century warfare has been toward internal armed conflicts that often involve the armed forces of numerous states, some of which are using technologies that were unheard of when the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols were created. As a result, a significant portion of the course will be devoted to examining the challenges of post-20^th century armed conflict.

IHL is related to other fields of public international law, in particular to International Criminal Law and to International Human Rights Law. The precise boundaries between these fields are a subject of continuing debate. We will consider the modern dynamic of these bodies of law, and more importantly, examine how they may affect future military operations.

Course objectives

This course aims to provide participants with an overview of the way in which international law seeks to minimize the suffering of victims of armed conflict. Such an overview will be of particular interest to those specializing or considering careers in politics, security, peacekeeping, conflict resolution, human rights and humanitarian affairs.

LEARNING EXPECTATIONS

This course endeavors to help each student accomplish, inter alia, the following learning objectives:

Develop skills in critical, logical and structured reasoning generally and within the context of international humanitarian law in particular;
Understand armed conflict as a social phenomenon and its regulation from a legal
This body of rules (also known as jus in bello) is to be distinguished from the international law on recourse to force (also known as jus ad bellum).
Perspective;
Appreciate the interplay between legal rules and social values underlying the conduct of armed conflict;
Become aware of the law’s substantive rules, on the one hand, and their implementation including criminal sanctions, on the other hand; and
Acquire the ability to follow, on one’s own, contemporary events and discourses involving international humanitarian law.

Required readings

MARCO SASSOU ANTOINE A. BOUVIER in co-operation with Susan Carr, Lindsey Cameron and Thomas de Saint Maurice HOW DOES LAW PROTECT IN WAR? Cases, Documents and Teaching Materials on Contemporary Practice in International Humanitarian Law vols. I, II,&III.

Y Dinstein, The Conduct of Hostilities under the Law of International Armed Conflict (2010, 2nd edition, CUP)

F Kalshoven and L Zegveld, Constraints on the Waging of War (ICRC, Geneva, 2001)

D Fleck (ed), The Handbook of Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008)

J-M Henckaerts and L Doswald-Beck (eds), Customary International Humanitarian Law: Volume I: Rules (CUP, Cambridge, 2005) (paperback)

LC Green, The Contemporary Law of Armed Conflict (3rd edn, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2008)

Gary Solis, The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Canadian Forces texts:

Geneva Conventions, 1949 and the three Additional Protocols, 1977 and 2005.

(1) Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Level (hereinafter LOAC Manual)

(2) Collection of Documents on the Law of Armed Conflict (hereinafter Collection of Documents) both of which are accessible online through the Canadian Forces JAG website:

http://www.forces.gc.ca/jag/training-formation/index-eng.asp.

Antonio Cassese, International Criminal Law, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2008.

Leslie C. Green, The contemporary law of armed conflict, 3rd ed., Manchester University

Press, 2000.

Adam Roberts and Richard Guelff (eds.), Documents on the Laws of War, 3rd ed., Oxford

University Press, 2000.

International Court of Justice, Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory

Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1996.

Supreme Court of the United States, 548 U.S. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Petitioner v. Donald H.

Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, et al. (2006).

Georges Abi-Saab, “Non-International Armed Conflicts,” in Henry Dunant Institute and

UNESCO (eds.), International Dimensions of Humanitarian Law, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988, p. 217 et seq.

Hans Blix, “Means and Methods of Combat,” in Henry Dunant Institute and UNESCO (eds.),

International Dimensions of Humanitarian Law, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988, p. 135 et

seq.

Carl von Clausewitz, On War, Michael Howard and Peter Petit (eds. trans.), Princeton

University Press, 1976.

Knut Dörmann, “The legal situation of ‘unlawful/unprivileged combatants’,” in International

Review of the Red Cross, no. 849, 2003, p. 45 et seq.

Jakob Kellenberger, “Speaking Out or Remaining Silent in Humanitarian Work,” in International Review of the Red Cross, no. 855, 2004, p. 593 et seq.
Larry May, Crimes Against Humanity: A Normative Account, Cambridge University Press,

2005.

A.P.V. Rogers, Law on the battlefield, 2nd ed., Manchester University Press, 2004

Supplementary Reading Material: In the attached class schedule (below), you will find readings for each class from both the texts and from additional sources. All of the additional sources are openly available (use a Google search) through an author repository such as SSRN.

Useful websites include those of the ICRC (which includes a treaty database and a very extensive Customary IHL database that is continually evolving), the ASIL (asil.org), the UN (www.documents.un.org), and the IHL Research Initiative (www.ihlresearch.org), and icrc.org. Students should be aware that the ICRC has published extensive commentaries on each of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and on the 1977 Additional Protocols. In addition, the ICRC has recently published a study of customary IHL (J-M. Henckaerts & L. Doswald-Beck, Customary International Humanitarian Law (vol 1 – Rules (including commentary) and vol 2 (in 2 parts)- Practice) (Cambridge 2005); this publication is kept up to date online at the ICRC website’s Customary IHL database.

The most recent and thorough national military manual is UK Ministry of Defence, The Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict (Oxford, 2004). Three journals which students should be aware of are the International Review of the Red Cross (accessible on the ICRC website), The Journal of Conflict and Security Law, and The Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law. The Military Law Review, published by the US Army Judge Advocate General’s School also publishes a large number of IHL/LOAC articles. Many excellent articles are also now available openly on SSRN – the Social Sciences Research Network: www.ssrn.com.

Cases: Refer to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ITCY), International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), The ICC, The Specialized International Criminal tribunal for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Division of the High Court (Uganda) websites.

Particular cases will be assigned to you for reading, internalizing and discussion in class.

Course Content
Introduction: International law, jus ad bellum and jus in bello, brief history and main sources of IHL. Applicability – scope: personal scope of application and material scope of application (qualification of conflicts)

(Week 1)

The relationship between international humanitarian law and international human rights law

(Week 2)

Main principles of IHL: military necessity, precaution, distinction, proportionality and the “dictates of the public conscience” (Week 2)

Group work /Role play

(Week 3)

Methods in armed conflict: distinction, definition of civilians, combatant status, legitimate targets, perfidy and ruses of war, reprisals

(Week 4)

Means in armed conflict: general principles and special treaty regimes on specific weapons

(Week 5)

Protection of Prisoners Of War (POWs) and civilians – occupation (Week6)

a) Special protection of cultural property
b) International & National implementation (Week 7)

Peace Support Operations: Which rules apply? (Week 8)

Grave breaches – individual criminal responsibility (ICC) (Week 8)

Asymmetrical warfare and “direct participation in hostilities” (Week 9)

Non-International Armed Conflicts and combatant status ( Week 9)

Group work/Role play & Discussion of Home work paper/ Group work

(Week 10)

Group work /exam preparations

(Week 11

Weekly Schedule

Week	Topic	Required Reading	Assignments
1	Presentation of the course and subject matter – Choice of format for the course – Presentation of the method of assessment – Beginning of the Course introduction – Existence of international law – Notion, objectives and problems of IHL – IHL, a branch of public international law.	See Core text material within the course content pages for required reading	General reading
2	-The interface between IHL and International Human Rights Law Documentary: Mai Lai -Use of Force in International Law (jus ad bellum)	Watkin, Controlling the Use of Force, ICRC , International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law; San Remo Manual on Non-International Armed Conflict	“
3	Sources and Principles of the Law of Armed Conflict	Solis: 38-58, 186-228, 232-238, 250-298	“
4	Group work /Role play	General Readings of texts and Cases	Group research and Socratic discussion of cases
5	Combatant Status and Protection of Civilians Targeting	Solis, 519-574 LOAC Manual Ch 3&4 Additional Protocol 1 – Arts 48-71
6	Means and Methods of Warfare	Solis; 420-431, 577-592; 556-567 LOAC Manual: Ch 5 thru 8	General reading
7	-Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Sick, Wounded and Shipwrecked -Special protection of cultural property	Additional Protocol 1, arts 51-71 GC I arts. 12-45, GC 2 arts 12-45 GC 3 arts. 4-57, 109-121 AP1 – arts 8-47 LOAC Manual Ch 9&10	“
8	-Peace Support Operations: Which rules apply? -Grave breaches – individual criminal responsibility (ICC)	-The Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols – See other core text material within the course content pages for required reading	“
9	-Asymmetrical warfare and “direct participation in hostilities” -Non-International Armed Conflicts and combatant status	“	“
10	-Group work/Role play & Discussion of Home work paper/ Group work	“	“
11	Group work /exam preparations	“	“

Assignment explanations

Students are required to read ahead of lectures following the schedule in the course content for texts and cases. Bearing in mind that cases relevant to the topics must be read and Socratic Method of case discussion will be adopted. Students will also be required to undertake detailed research in all the major cases on the reading list and then make group presentations for discussion on key cases. The lecturer will identify in advance which cases are to be discussed in the subsequent class and may call upon any member of a particular group assigned to read a case, to explain the case’s underlying principles.

During the tutorials of class discussions, Students may be called upon at random to analyze the principles in the cases on any topic that will be under discussion. Students are also advised to be up to date with the day to day events surrounding International Humanitarian situations and policy as covered in the media, as class discussions will also rely on media reports.

5.0 Assessment criteria

The assessment for the course will follow the following criteria:

Coursework which will consist of one take-home essay or classroom test (closed-book) carrying 20% of the total exam mark.
Class participation and attendance 10%.
Final Examination 70%
Advanced and adequate Reading of cases and reference materials for presentation in class.
Where an essay assignment is given, this should include a title page, an Introduction, a Conclusion and a List of References or Bibliography indicating the author, title of book or Publication, the publisher and the year it was published. References in the main body of the essay should be presented in accepted academic style (for guidance, see Glanville Williams: Learning the Law).
Plagiarism or any form of cheating will be heavily penalized.
The final exam at the end of the semester will be partially open book and will consist of six questions out of which candidates will be required to answer three to be marked out of 23 each to make a total mark of 70%. Students will only be allowed to carry into the exam a clean reading list and any Statutory materials relevant to Land Law.