Project C8, headed by Prof. Heike Krieger, hosted a workshop on November 25, 2016, on the topic: “Challenges to International Humanitarian Law in Areas of Limited Statehood – Adaptable and Legitimate, or Petrified and Unreasonable?”

 Young scholars from the SFB 700 and numerous other institutions presented and debated their research findings.

Participants in the first panel addressed the question of how legal norms in international humanitarian law develop over time. They began with a fundamental look at history of international law, before expanding the discussion to consider the legal theory and legal methodology.

 In the second panel, participants engaged in a concrete, jurisprudential debate on the legal basis for detention in non-state armed conflicts and how these situations play out on the ground for states, non-state actors, and peacekeeping operations.

 The closing lecture examined the relationship between international humanitarian law and international investment protection law, showing how the two can be adapted to the particular context of armed conflicts.

 Overall, the workshop’s takeaway was that international humanitarian law can indeed be adapted to areas of limited statehood and can help usher in solutions. Actors may disagree politically, methodologically, or legally, and some may question the legitimacy of international humanitarian law. But the idea that law can guide transformations from humanitarian nightmares towards better, more appropriate solutions in armed conflicts – even if utopia remains out of reach – should not be abandoned.

 

Further Informationen:

 Text of Announcement

 Program