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The Impact of Commentaries on Compliance with International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2022

Jean-Marie Henckaerts*
Affiliation:
Head of the Commentaries Update Unit, Legal Division, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva. This contribution reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ICRC.

Extract

Better understanding of the Geneva Conventions increases compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law. The commentaries are one tool for gaining that understanding.

Type
There and Back Again: How to Ensure Compliance with IHL by Relying on Non-traditional Voices and Live to Tell the Tale
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Society of International Law.

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Footnotes

This panel was convened at 11:15 a.m., Wednesday, March 24, 2021, by its moderator Ioana Cismas of the University of York Center for Applied Human Rights, who introduced the panelists: Pascal Bongard of Geneva Call; Tanisha Fazal of the University of Minnesota; Jean-Marie Henckaerts of the International Committee of the Red Cross; and Nontando Habede of St. Augustine College.

References

1 See Christian Djeffal, Commentaries on the Law of Treaties: A Review Essay Reflecting on the Genre of Commentaries, 24 Eur. J. Int'l L. 1223 (2013).

2 See, e.g., Jiří Toman, The Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict: Commentary on the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and Its Protocol (1996); Commentary on the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (2009); The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Stuart Maslen ed., 2004); William Schabas, Nowak's CCPR Commentary ( 3d ed. 2019); The United Nations Convention Against Torture and Its Optional Protocol: A Commentary (Manfred Nowak, Moritz Birk & Giuliana Monina eds. 2019); William A. Schabas, The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute (2d ed. 2016); The Convention on Cluster Munitions: A Commentary (Gro Nystuen & Stuart Casey-Maslen eds., 2010); The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Its 1967 Protocol: A Commentary (Andreas Zimmermann, Jonas Dörschner & Felix Machts eds., 2011); Christian J. Tams, Lars Berster & Björn Schiffbauer, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: A Commentary (2014); The 1949 Geneva Conventions: A Commentary (Andrew Clapham, Paola Gaeta & Marco Sassòli eds., 2015); The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary (Otto Triffterer & Kai Ambos eds., 3d ed. 2016).

3 See, e.g., Jorge Viñuales, The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: A Commentary (2015).

4 Article 26, entitled “Pacta sunt servanda.”

5 Y.B. Int'l L. Comm'n, Vol. II, 219, para. 6 (1966). See also Territorial Dispute Case (Libya v. Chad), Judgment, 1994 ICJ Rep. 6, para. 51 (Feb. 3) (in international law, effet utile (useful effect) is regarded as “one of the fundamental principles of interpretation of treaties”).

6 Case Concerning Rights of Nationals of the United States of America in Morocco (Fr. v. U.S.), Judgment, 1952 ICJ Rep. 176, 196 (Aug. 27).

7 Int'l L. Comm'n Rep. on Work of Its 70th Session, Subsequent Agreements and Subsequent Practice in Relation to the Interpretation of Treaties, Conclusion 2.4 (Adopted on Second Reading), 13, UN Doc. A/70/10 (2018).

8 Id., Conclusion 4.3 (provisionally adopted).

9 Id. at 15.

10 See, e.g., Campbell McLachlan, The Principle of Systemic Integration and Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention, 54 Int'l & Comp. L. Q. 279 (2005).

11 Statute of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Art. 5(2)(c) (1986).

12 See Commentary on the First Geneva Convention, paras. 849, 856 (2016).