International Humanitarian Law and Refugee Law Notes | LL.M. Semester 3 | Mumbai University | munotes

Contents

Module I

1. What This Paper Is About 1
2. What International Humanitarian Law Is 5
3. Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law 9
4. The Humanization of Welfare, and the Term the Field Uses 13
5. The Law of Geneva and the Law of The Hague 17
6. When Humanitarian Law Applies 21
7. Common Article 1, and the Duty to Ensure Respect 25
8. Common Article 3: the Convention in Miniature 29
9. The Martens Clause 33
10. The Principle of Distinction 37
11. Proportionality, and Precautions in Attack 41
12. Military Necessity, and Humanity 46
13. The First Convention: the Wounded and Sick in the Field 50
14. The Wounded and Sick: Articles 12 to 18 54
15. Medical Units, Establishments and Personnel 59
16. Buildings, Material and Medical Transports 64
17. The Distinctive Emblem 68
18. The First Convention: Execution and Repression 73
19. The Second Convention: War at Sea 78
20. The Shipwrecked, and What Shipwreck Means 82
21. Hospital Ships 87
22. Medical Personnel at Sea, and the Emblem 93
23. The Second Convention: Execution 98
24. The Humanization of Welfare in Maritime Conflict 102
25. Prisoners of War: Who Qualifies 107
26. The General Protection of Prisoners of War 112
27. Capture, Questioning and Evacuation 117
28. Internment: Quarters, Food and Clothing 122
29. Hygiene, Medical Attention, Religion and Recreation 127
30. Discipline, Rank and Transfer 132
31. The Labour of Prisoners of War 138
32. Financial Resources 144
33. Relations with the Exterior 150
34. Complaints, and the Prisoners' Representative 156
35. The Penal and Disciplinary Regime: General Provisions 161
36. Disciplinary Sanctions 166
37. Judicial Proceedings 172
38. Repatriation and Accommodation in Neutral Countries 178
39. Release at the Close of Hostilities 183
40. The Information Bureau and the Central Agency 188
41. The Third Convention: Execution and Grave Breaches 193
42. Civilians: Who Is a Protected Person 198
43. Provisions for the Whole of the Populations 204
44. Article 27, and the General Protection of Protected Persons 211
45. Collective Penalties, Hostages, Reprisals and Pillage 217
46. Aliens in the Territory of a Party to the Conflict 222
47. Occupied Territory: the Basic Rules 228
48. Occupation: Administration, Supplies and Property 235
49. The Treatment of Internees 243
50. Internees: Penal Sanctions, Transfers and Release 250
51. The Fourth Convention: Execution and Grave Breaches 257
52. Cultural Property: What Is Protected 263
53. Special Protection, Transport and the Emblem 269
54. The Additional Protocols of 1977 276
55. Protocol I: the Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked 282
56. The Missing and the Dead 289
57. Methods and Means of Warfare 295
58. Civil Defence, Relief and the Natural Environment 302
59. Article 75, and the Fundamental Guarantees 309
60. Women, Children and the Family 315
61. Protocol II: Non-International Armed Conflict 322

Module II

1. Why the Control of Weapons Is Part of This Law 331
2. The Two Tests: Superfluous Injury, and Indiscriminate Effect 336
3. The Limit on the Choice of Means and Methods 341
4. Poison, and the Geneva Protocol of 1925 346
5. The Biological Weapons Convention: the Prohibition 351
6. The Biological Weapons Convention: Machinery, and What It Lacks 357
7. The Chemical Weapons Convention: the Prohibition 363
8. The Chemical Weapons Convention: Verification and the OPCW 369
9. The Non-Proliferation Treaty: the Bargain 375
10. Article VI, and the Obligation to Negotiate 381
11. Is the Use of Nuclear Weapons Lawful? 386
12. The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons 392
13. The CCW Protocols: Fragments, Mines, Incendiaries, Lasers and Remnants 398
14. Landmines and Cluster Munitions 404
15. Proliferation, and What a Treaty Can Control 411
16. New Weapons, and the Duty to Review Them 416
17. The Control of Weapons Assessed 422

Module III

1. What Implementation Means, and Why It Is the Hard Half 427
2. Dissemination, Legal Advisers and the Duty of Commanders 432
3. Grave Breaches, and the Obligation to Prosecute 438
4. Universal Jurisdiction over Grave Breaches 445
5. Command Responsibility 450
6. Protecting Powers, and Their Substitutes 456
7. The International Fact-Finding Commission 463
8. The International Committee of the Red Cross: What It Is 469
9. The ICRC's Treaty Functions 474
10. The Right of Humanitarian Initiative, and Confidentiality as a Method 480
11. The Movement: the Committee, the Federation and the National Societies 486
12. National Legislation: How a State Implements the Conventions 492
13. India's Geneva Conventions Act 1960: the Offences 497
14. The Geneva Conventions Act 1960: Procedure and the Emblem 503
15. What India Has Not Legislated For 510
16. From Nuremberg to the Ad Hoc Tribunals 516
17. The International Criminal Court: the War Crimes Article 522
18. Complementarity, and Responsibility Under the Statute 529
19. Reparation, State Responsibility and the Victim 536
20. Why Implementation Fails 542

Module IV

1. The Concept of Refugees: Why the Category Exists 548
2. The Definition in Article 1A(2) 553
3. The Five Grounds, and Membership of a Particular Social Group 559
4. Well-Founded Fear, and Persecution 564
5. What the 1967 Protocol Changed 569
6. Cessation, and the Exclusion Clauses 574
7. Wider Definitions: the OAU Convention and Cartagena 580
8. Displaced Persons, and How They Differ 588
9. Stateless Persons 594
10. Asylum Seekers, Migrants and the Limits of the Category 600
11. Non-Refoulement 605
12. The Rights of a Refugee Under the Convention 611
13. Article 31, and Refugees Unlawfully in the Country of Refuge 617
14. From the Nansen Passport to UNRRA and the IRO 622
15. Climate, Disaster and Conflict Displacement 628
16. Strategies to Combat the Refugee Problem 634
17. UNHCR: the Statute and the Mandate 639
18. Article 35, and UNHCR's Duty of Supervision 645
19. Determination of Status, Registration and Documentation 651
20. The Three Durable Solutions 657
21. Voluntary Repatriation 662
22. Local Integration 667
23. Resettlement 672
24. Burden Sharing, and the Global Compact on Refugees 677
25. Mass Influx, Temporary Protection and Camps 683
26. Root Causes, and Prevention 688
27. India: No Refugee Statute, and What Governs Instead 693
28. The Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025 699
29. Constitutional Protection for a Refugee in India 706
30. UNHCR's Relationship and Operations in India 712
31. Why India Has Not Ratified, and the Arguments Each Way 717
32. What the Refugee Regime Has and Has Not Achieved 724