Law and the Future of War

• The Geneva Conventions and the Third World - Srinivas Burra

  Send us a textIn this episode, Dr Simon McKenzie talks with Associate Professor Srinivas Burra about the Third World and the Geneva Conventions. They discuss the value of taking a Third World perspective of international law, and how being attentive to the view from these State helps explain the form and operation of international humanitarian law. Srinivas Burra is an Associate Professor of Law at South Asian University in New Delhi. He has written on the Geveva Conventions, teaches international humanitarian law, and has worked with the ICRC and other international organisations.Further readingSrinivas Burra, 'Four Geneva Conventions of 1949: a Third World View.' Revisiting the Geneva Conventions: 1949-2019 (Brill Nijhoff, 2019) 190-214.Boyd Van Dijk, Preparing for War: The Making of the 1949 Geneva Conventions (Oxford University Press, 2022).Antony Anghie, Imperialism, sovereignty and the making of international law (Cambridge University Press, 2007).Giovanni Mantilla, Lawmaking Under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict (Cornell University Press, 2020)Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (Advisory Opinion) [1996] ICJ 3, Dissenting Opinion of Judge WeeramantryChris Jochnick and Roger Normand, “The Legitimation of Violence: A Critical History of the Laws of War” (1994) 35(1) Harvard International Law Journal 49-95.Chris Jochnick and Roger Normand, “The Legitimation of Violence: A Critical Analysis of the Gulf War” (1994) 35(2) Harvard International Law Journal 387-416.

  --------  

  45:25
• The Geneva Conventions at sea - André Smit (ICRC)

  Send us a textAs part of the 75th anniversary series on the Gevena Conventions, Lauren Sanders speaks to André Smit - the ICRC Regional Legal Adviser on Maritime Matters (Asia-Pacific) when he visited Australia in September 2024. They discuss the applicability of Geneva Convention II (GC II) on the Amerlioraton to the region and challenges for states in applying their obligations under GC II in the event of a maritime conflict in the region. André supports the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Asia and the Pacific region from the ICRC Regional Resources Network (RRN) in Thailand. The role focusses on advancing the regional understanding of international humanitarian law applicable to armed conflict at sea, strengthening the application of other legal protection regimes at sea, supporting the work of other ICRC métiers and ICRC Delegations on related files, and supporting the ICRC institutional thinking on its future positioning in Asia and the Pacific. His work experience includes practising law; serving as officer in the South African National Defence Force; and service in the South African Foreign Ministry as counsel to Government on International Law. In the military, he served at unit-, training-, Joint Operations-, and Defence Headquarters-levels retiring as a senior officer supporting policy and international law. He provided operational legal support to operations and supported the force preparation of naval infantry, maritime air operations squadrons (helicopter and fixed wing), the submarine service. The culmination of his time as an instructor was serving as Director of the Departmental Course on International Humanitarian Law. After military service, as State Law Adviser (International Law) in the foreign Ministry, he fulfilled legal and diplomatic functions (at the level of counsellor), represented the Government in various bilateral and multilateral diplomatic forums, and co-drafted South Africa’s submissions to the International Court of Justice. He was a long-standing member of the South African National Committee on International Humanitarian Law. He lectured at various universities and other training institutions on topics including air and space law, law of the sea, the interfaces of human rights and international humanitarian law in military operations, and at different diplomatic academies with minor publications on related topics of maritime operations. 

  --------  

  53:28
• The Geneva Conventions and Non-State Armed Groups - Katharine Fortin

  Send us a textIn this episode, Simon speaks with Dr Katharine Fortin about non-international armed conflicts, focussing on the intersections between IHL, international human rights law and armed non-State actors. Dr Katharine Fortin is a senior lecturer of public international law and human rights at Utrecht University's Netherlands Institute of Human Rights. She is the Editor in Chief of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights and founder of the Armed Groups and International Law blog. Her book The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law (OUP, 2017) won the Lieber Prize in 2018. She is Co-Investigator on the Beyond Compliance Consortium: Building Evidence on Promoting Restraint by Armed Actors. Katharine has a LLM and PhD from the Utrecht University. She is a qualified solicitor in the UK and previously worked at Norton Rose Fulbright, the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone, the ICC and the ICTY.Additional resources:Fortin, Katharine ‘Mapping Calamities: Capturing the Competing Legalities of Spaces under the Control of armed non State Actors without erasing everyday civilian life’ (2023) 8(1) Social Science and Humanities OpenMatthew Bamber-Zryd, 'ICRC engagement with armed groups in 2024' Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog (31 October 2024)Katharine Fortin and Ezequiel Heffes (eds), Armed Groups and International Law: In the Shadowland of Legality and Illegality (Edward Elgar, 2023)Naz Modirzadeh, 'Cut These Words: Passion and International Law of War Scholarship' (2020) 61(1) Harvard International Law Journal 1.Zoe Pearson, 'Spaces of International Law' (2008) 17 Griffith Law Review 489.Helen Kinsella, The Image Before the Weapon: A Critical History of the Distinction between Combatant and Civilian (Cornell University Press, 2015)Kieran McIvoy, 'Beyond Legalism: Towards a Thicker Understanding of Transitional Justice' (2007) 34(4) Journal of Law and Society 411.Sally Engle Merry, The Seductions of Quantification: Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence and Sex Trafficking (University of Chicago Press, 2016)Ana Arjona, Rebelocracy: Social Order in the Colombian Civil War (CUP, 2016)Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, Rebel Rulers: Insurgent

  --------  

  46:29
• The Geneva Conventions in History - Helen Kinsella and Giovanni Mantilla

  Send us a textIn this episode, Simon speaks to Professor Helen Kinsella and Associate Professor Giovanni Mantilla, two leading experts on the history and formation of the Geneva Conventions and IHL more generally. They discuss the negotiations leading up the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol, exploring some of the political tensions that sits behind the provisions of these key legal texts. This includes how the law treats non-state actors and non-international armed conflict, as well who gets the right to wage war. Helen Kinsella is a Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the theorization of gender and armed conflict and she is currently working on a book on sleep in war and another on the histories of the laws of war through the United States' wars against Native peoples.  She is the author of The Image before the Weapon (Cornell University Press, 2011), which won the 2012 Sussex International Theory Prize. Helen has a PhD in Political Science and an MA in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a BA in Political Science and Gender Studies from Bryn Mawr College.Giovanni Mantilla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University, Fellow of Christ’s College, and Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. His research focusses on the operation of multilateralism, particularly practices of social pressure and pressure management in diplomacy, global governance, and international legal processes. His book Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict (Cornell University Press, 2020) received the 2021 Francis Lieber award.Additional ResourcesHelen M Kinsella and Giovanni Mantilla, 'Contestation before Compliance: History, Politics, and Power in International Humanitarian Law' (2020) 64(3) International Studies Quarterly 649.Helen Kinsella, 'Settler Empire and the United States: Francis Lieber on the Laws of War' (2023) 117(2) American Political Science Review 629.  Vasuki Nesiah, International Conflict Feminism: Theory, Practice, Challenges (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024)Thomas Gregory, Weaponizing Civilian Protection (Oxford University Press, 2025)Tom Dannenbaum, 'Siege Starvation: A War Crime of Societal Torture' (2021) 22(2) Chicago Journal of International Law 368.Boyd Van Dijk, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions (Oxford University Press, 2022) Craig Jones, The War Lawyers: The United States, Israel and Juridical Warfare (Oxford University Press, 2020)Janina Dill, Legitimate Targets? Social Construction, International Law and US Bombing (Cambridge University Press, 2014)

  --------  

  57:22
• 75 Years of the Geneva Conventions - Lauren Sanders and Simon McKenzie

  Send us a textIn this series introduction, Dr Lauren Sanders and Dr Simon McKenzie talk about the Geneva Conventions, and what is in store for the Law and the Future of War podcast over the next few months.

  --------  

  24:38

More Technology podcasts

Trending Technology podcasts

About Law and the Future of War