The history of international law is replete with concepts that have generated change: individual criminal responsibility, common heritage of mankind and sustainable development to name but a few. These are concepts that have influenced the scope, structure and purpose of international law. This book explores the extent to which Responsibility to Protect (R2P) possesses the same transformative potential, showing how R2P shifts our understanding of both the potential and practice of international law. Responsibility to Protect is both an ambitious and an ambiguous concept in international law. Ambiguity creates space for debate and the potential for legal development, but it may also generate misunderstanding, false expectations and uncertainty. Despite its ambiguity, R2P has quickly found a place within international legal texts. At the same time its ambiguity -or rather the tensions the concept generates - has also helped generate an enormous range of scholarship. This collection of essays presents a more fundamental critical evaluation of R2P, exploring how it interacts with existing concepts and values, and how this influences normative developments within international law. In particular, the essays explore the influence of R2P upon sovereignty as responsibility, the continued advance of positive human rights obligations and the safeguarding of international community interests. These themes are explored in a range of essays written by new and established scholars. The essays explore the moral and political foundations of R2P, the expansion of R2P to non-state actors, and the interaction between R2P and certain branches of international law, such as use of force, responsibility as liability, humanitarian law and international criminal law. With contributions by: Richard A. Barnes, Vassilis P. Tzevelekos, Henry Jones, Markus P. Beham, Ralph R.A. Janik, Tony Ward, Nabil Hajjami, John Heieck, Julia Schmidt, Nigel D. White, Antal Berkes, Jennifer Dee Halbert, Hitoshi Nasu, Humberto Cantú Rivera, Kasey L. McCall-Smith, Lucas Lixinski, Sophie Rondeau, Raphaël van Steenberghe, David Turns, Vito Todeschini, Barbara Sonczyk, Lindsay Moir, Ludovica Poli, Tomoko Yamashita, Lenneke Sprik, Elena Katselli and Nicholas Tsagourias.

Armed conflicts are a major cause of forced displacement, but people displaced by conflict are often not recognised as refugees under the 1951 Refugee Convention. They are frequently considered as having fled from generalised violence rather than from persecution.This book determines the international meaning of the refugee definition in Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Refugee Convention as regards refugee protection claims related to situations of armed conflict in the country of origin. Although the human rights-based interpretation of the refugee definition is widely accepted, the interpretation and application of the 1951 Refugee Convention as regards claims to refugee status that relate to armed conflict is often marred with difficulties. Moreover, contexts of armed conflict pose the question of whether and to what extent the refugee definition should be interpreted in light of international humanitarian law. This book identifies the potential and limits of this interpretative approach. Starting from the history of international refugee law, the book situates the 1951 Refugee Convention within the international legal framework for the protection of the individual in armed conflict. It examines the refugee definition in light of human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law, focusing on the elements of the refugee definition that most benefit from this interpretative approach: persecution and the requirement that the refugee claimant's predicament must be causally linked to race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.Refugees from Armed Conflict is of interest to academics and practitioners in international refugee and human rights law.'Anyone who is interested in the present refugee debate, should at some point take up Holzer's book [...].' (ZAR, 2016, 5-6, p. 186)

In the last five years the topic of cyber warfare has received much attention due to several so-called "cyber incidents" which have been qualified by many as State-sponsored cyber attacks. This book identifies rules and limits of cross-border computer network operations for which States bear the international responsibility during both peace and war. It consequently addresses questions on jus ad bellum and jus in bello in addition to State responsibility. By reference to treaty and customary international law, actual case studies (Estonia, Georgia, Stuxnet) and the Tallinn Manual, the author illustrates the applicability of current international law and argues for an obligation on the State to prevent malicious operations emanating from networks within their jurisdiction.This book is written for academics in public international law and practitioners from the military and other public security sectors.