Humanitarian and Refugee Law Notes | B.B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Semester 10 | SPPU | munotes

Contents

Module 01 Introduction to International Humanitarian Law (IHL)

1. What International Humanitarian Law Is 1
2. The Law of Geneva and the Law of The Hague 5
3. The Principle of Distinction 9
4. Proportionality, and Precautions in Attack 13
5. Military Necessity, and Humanity 18
6. The Martens Clause 22
7. When Humanitarian Law Applies 26
8. Common Article 3: the Convention in Miniature 30
9. International Law and International Humanitarian Law 34
10. Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law 38

Module 02 Protected Persons and Conduct of Hostilities

1. The Wounded and Sick: Articles 12 to 18 42
2. The Shipwrecked, and What Shipwreck Means 47
3. Protocol I: the Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked 52
4. The Missing and the Dead 59
5. Prisoners of War: Who Qualifies 65
6. The General Protection of Prisoners of War 70
7. Capture, Questioning and Evacuation 75
8. Medical Units, Establishments and Personnel 80
9. Medical Personnel at Sea, and the Emblem 85
10. Civil Defence, Relief and the Natural Environment 90
11. Civilians: Who Is a Protected Person 97
12. Article 27, and the General Protection of Protected Persons 103
13. Collective Penalties, Hostages, Reprisals and Pillage 109
14. Occupied Territory: the Basic Rules 114
15. Article 75, and the Fundamental Guarantees 121
16. Women, Children and the Family 127
17. Cultural Property: What Is Protected 134
18. Special Protection, Transport and the Emblem 140
19. Why the Control of Weapons Is Part of This Law 147
20. The Two Tests: Superfluous Injury, and Indiscriminate Effect 152
21. Poison, and the Geneva Protocol of 1925 157
22. The Biological Weapons Convention: the Prohibition 162
23. The Biological Weapons Convention: Machinery, and What It Lacks 168
24. The Chemical Weapons Convention: the Prohibition 174
25. The Chemical Weapons Convention: Verification and the OPCW 180
26. The Non-Proliferation Treaty: the Bargain 186
27. Article VI, and the Obligation to Negotiate 192
28. Is the Use of Nuclear Weapons Lawful? 197
29. The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons 203
30. The CCW Protocols: Fragments, Mines, Incendiaries, Lasers and Remnants 209
31. Landmines and Cluster Munitions 215
32. Proliferation, and What a Treaty Can Control 222
33. The Control of Weapons Assessed 227
34. The Limit on the Choice of Means and Methods 232
35. Methods and Means of Warfare 237

Module 03 Implementation of IHL and Institutional Mechanisms

1. What Implementation Means, and Why It Is the Hard Half 245
2. Dissemination, Legal Advisers and the Duty of Commanders 250
3. Protecting Powers, and Their Substitutes 256
4. The International Fact-Finding Commission 263
5. National Legislation: How a State Implements the Conventions 269
6. India's Geneva Conventions Act 1960: the Offences 274
7. The Geneva Conventions Act 1960: Procedure and the Emblem 280
8. What India Has Not Legislated For 287
9. Grave Breaches, and the Obligation to Prosecute 293
10. Universal Jurisdiction over Grave Breaches 300
11. Command Responsibility 305
12. The International Committee of the Red Cross: What It Is 311
13. The ICRC's Treaty Functions 316
14. The Right of Humanitarian Initiative, and Confidentiality as a Method 322
15. The Movement: the Committee, the Federation and the National Societies 328
16. From Nuremberg to the Ad Hoc Tribunals 334
17. From Nuremberg to Rome 340
18. What the International Criminal Court Is 344
19. The Jurisdiction of the Court 348
20. The Organs of the Court 353
21. How a Case Reaches the Court 359
22. The International Criminal Court: the War Crimes Article 365
23. Complementarity, and Responsibility Under the Statute 372
24. India and the Court 379
25. Reparation, State Responsibility and the Victim 385

Module 04 Conventions and Protocols

1. The First Convention: the Wounded and Sick in the Field 391
2. Buildings, Material and Medical Transports 395
3. The First Convention: Execution and Repression 399
4. The Second Convention: War at Sea 404
5. Hospital Ships 408
6. The Second Convention: Execution 414
7. Internment: Quarters, Food and Clothing 418
8. Hygiene, Medical Attention, Religion and Recreation 423
9. Discipline, Rank and Transfer 428
10. The Labour of Prisoners of War 434
11. Financial Resources 440
12. Relations with the Exterior 446
13. Complaints, and the Prisoners' Representative 452
14. The Penal and Disciplinary Regime: General Provisions 457
15. Disciplinary Sanctions 462
16. Judicial Proceedings 468
17. Repatriation and Accommodation in Neutral Countries 474
18. Release at the Close of Hostilities 479
19. The Information Bureau and the Central Agency 484
20. The Third Convention: Execution and Grave Breaches 489
21. Provisions for the Whole of the Populations 494
22. Aliens in the Territory of a Party to the Conflict 501
23. Occupation: Administration, Supplies and Property 507
24. The Treatment of Internees 515
25. Internees: Penal Sanctions, Transfers and Release 523
26. The Fourth Convention: Execution and Grave Breaches 530
27. The Additional Protocols of 1977 536
28. Protocol II: Non-International Armed Conflict 542
29. The Distinctive Emblem 551

Module 05 Tribunals and Judicial Decisions

1. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg 556
2. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo) 560
3. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia 564
4. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda 568
5. The Special Court for Sierra Leone 571

Module 06 Contemporary Challenges

1. Common Article 1, and the Duty to Ensure Respect 575
2. Why Implementation Fails 579
3. Humanitarian Law and Terrorism 585
4. Private Military and Security Companies 588
5. New Weapons, and the Duty to Review Them 592
6. New Methods of Warfare: Drones, Cyber Operations and Autonomous Weapons 598

Module 07 Introduction to International Refugee Law

1. The Concept of Refugees: Why the Category Exists 602
2. From the Nansen Passport to UNRRA and the IRO 607
3. The Definition in Article 1A(2) 613
4. The Five Grounds, and Membership of a Particular Social Group 619
5. Well-Founded Fear, and Persecution 624
6. What the 1967 Protocol Changed 629
7. Cessation, and the Exclusion Clauses 634
8. Wider Definitions: the OAU Convention and Cartagena 640
9. Displaced Persons, and How They Differ 648
10. Stateless Persons 654
11. Asylum Seekers, Migrants and the Limits of the Category 660
12. Climate, Disaster and Conflict Displacement 665

Module 08 Human Rights and Refugees: an overview

1. The Rights of a Refugee Under the Convention 671
2. Asylum 678
3. Article 31, and Refugees Unlawfully in the Country of Refuge 685
4. Determination of Status, Registration and Documentation 690
5. Non-Refoulement 696
6. Non-Discrimination and Family Unity 702
7. The Three Durable Solutions 705
8. Local Integration 710
9. Resettlement 715
10. Burden Sharing, and the Global Compact on Refugees 720
11. Mass Influx, Temporary Protection and Camps 726
12. Voluntary Repatriation 731
13. Extradition 736
14. Extradition and the Refugee 743
15. UNHCR: the Statute and the Mandate 747
16. Article 35, and UNHCR's Duty of Supervision 753
17. Strategies to Combat the Refugee Problem 759
18. Root Causes, and Prevention 764
19. India: No Refugee Statute, and What Governs Instead 769
20. The Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025 775
21. Constitutional Protection for a Refugee in India 782
22. Why India Has Not Ratified, and the Arguments Each Way 788
23. UNHCR's Relationship and Operations in India 795
24. Refugees and Aliens in India 800
25. A Refugee and Asylum Law for India: the Asylum Bill 811
26. What the Refugee Regime Has and Has Not Achieved 815