Burchill Richard, White Nigel D., Morris Justin (ed.) International Conflict and Security Law: Essays in Memory of Hilaire McCoubrey

Cambridge University Press, 2005. — 350 p.Hilaire McCoubrey wrote extensively in the area of armed conflict law (governing the use of force in international relations, and the conduct of hostilities), and on the issues of collective security law and the law relating to arms control. Although he died at the early age of forty-six in 2000 he had contributed significantly to the separate study of these areas, but also to the idea of studying the issues as a whole subject. The collection covers difficult and controversial issues in the area of conflict and security law. Within a coherent framework provided by extracts from Hilaire’s own work, the contributors, drawn both from academe and practice, provide expert analysis of many aspects of the law governing armed conflict and collective security. These include the application of international humanitarian law in the operational context; the duty to educate in humanitarian law; superior orders; command responsibility; the protective emblem; the relevance of international humanitarian law to terrorism; and legitimatemilitary targets. The book then moves from a consideration of the laws of war to the law of peace with a consideration of the application of human rights law in international armed conflict law. An essay on democracy as an aspect of peace and security widens the human rights debate out further and takes us into regional security regimes. The essays then move on to discuss aspects of collective security law. As well as providing a fitting tribute to the main aspects of Hilaire’s contribution to knowledge, the volume provides a coherent reconsideration and development of key aspects of conflict and security law at a time when that law is being applied, breached, debated or reformed on almost a daily basis.
RICHARD BURCHI L L is Director of the McCoubrey Centre for International Law. His research concerns the development of democracy in international law. He is author of The European Union and the Promotion and Protection of Democracy in International Law (2005).
NIGEL D. WHITE is Professor of International Organisations at the University of Nottingham. He is the editor of Collective Security Law (2002), and co-editor of the Journal of Conflict and Security Law.
JUSTIN MORRIS is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Hull. He is co-author (with the late Professor Hilaire McCoubrey) of Regional Peacekeeping in the Post-Cold War Era (2000).