The book notes that international armed conflicts traditionally ended with the conclusion of a peace treaty-or at least an express declaration-but that such treaties are now rare. The question encourages the students to engage in the issue of when an international armed conflict ends. Has the international armed conflict between North and South Korea been brought to an end? The accommodation of military necessity is one of the things that distinguish the law of armed conflict from international human rights law.
The content of the law therefore represents a long list of compromises that only seek to limit human suffering to the extent possible without seeking to negate the right of the warring parties to pursue their military objectives. Instead of trying to prohibit war it is less ambitious in the sense that it merely seeks to find a way to balance military necessity and humanitarian sentiments. The book notes that the law of armed conflict is pragmatic because it is based on the premise that war is a recurring feature of human existence. The question asks the students to consider the reasons for the inherent pragmatic character of the law of armed conflict. This means, according to our analysis, that war crimes could already have taken place before March 2022’ explains Dr Chiara Redealli.Why may one reasonably consider the law of armed conflict as a pragmatic discipline? What has changed, since February 2022, is the intensity of the violence and its impact on the civilian population.
Indeed, according to IHL criteria, there have been an IAC between Russia and Ukraine and two NIACs in Ukraine since 2014. ‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did not change our classification of the armed conflicts in the region. Europe is also the theatre of an international armed conflict (IAC) between Ukraine and Russia, and of two non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) in Ukraine opposing governmental forces with the self-proclaimed ‘People’s Republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. The following military occupations constitute the majority of armed conflicts that are taking place in Europe, four out of seven conflicts: Russia is currently occupying Crimea (Ukraine), Transdniestria (Moldova), as well as South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Georgia), while Armenia is occupying parts of Nagorno Karabakh (Azerbaijan).