Qualification of Armed Conflict and Determining the Applicable Law

Qualifying – or classifying – a situation as an international armed conflict (IAC) or non-international armed conflict (NIAC) is an important and often necessary step when determining whether the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) apply in a specific context. The application of IAC or NIAC rules to a given scenario is of significant consequence; for instance, under IHL the standards governing the use of lethal force in an IAC or NIAC are far more permissive than those that apply during peacetime. The basic distinction between IACs and NIACs is reflected in both treaty and customary law, and dictates which rules apply to a particular situation. For instance, the treaty rules regulating conduct of hostilities and the treaty rules addressing humanitarian access differ in an IAC as compared to a NIAC.

This session provides an introduction to conducting a qualification analysis under IHL. It will address such questions as:

• What is the value or utility of such an exercise?
• Who undertakes such an exercise and why? Is there a final arbiter of such an analysis?
• What are the definitions of an IAC and a NIAC? Where does occupation fit in?
• When does a situation of violence become an IAC or NIAC?
• What are some of the challenges in qualifying a situation as an armed conflict?