Legal Cynicism and Contemporary Armed Conflicts

International humanitarian law (IHL) and the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) have been at the center of intense public debates surrounding Ukraine, Israel-Gaza, and other conflicts, which raise important and challenging questions about the content and application of LOAC, including the jus ad bellum, the protection of civilians under IHL, and the law of occupation. They also highlight the way in which LOAC shapes how conflicts are framed, waged, and ultimately memorialized, even when significant gaps in its enforcement remain. This panel will explore the ways in which LOAC impacts narratives about armed conflicts and how those narratives can affect the conflicts themselves. It will offer fresh perspectives on LOAC as a dynamic and multidimensional force that can shape events even when its particular norms and rules appear to go unenforced. In that regard, the panel will engage with long-running "power vs. law" debates and realist critiques that dismiss IHL as epiphenomenal and largely irrelevant to international relations, a field dominated and driven by geopolitics. The panel will also consider how obstacles to enforcement by international or domestic courts can make LOAC vulnerable to contested narratives and risk.
Panelists:
Anna Cave, Georgetown Law (panelist)
Brian L. Cox, Cornell Law School, and U.S. Army Judge Advocate (retired) (panelist)
Jonathan Hafetz, Seton Hall Law School (moderator/panelist)
Shiri Krebs, Deakin University (panelist)
Matiangai Sirleaf, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (panelist)
Organized by the ASIL Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict and co-sponsored by the Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Interest Group.