Customary International Humanitarian Law Project
In 1996, the International Committee of the Red Cross, alongside a range of renowned experts and at the request of the international community, embarked upon a major international study into current state practice in international humanitarian law in order to identify customary law in this area. Volume I: Rules and Volume 2: Practice are the initial result of that study and were published by Cambridge University Press in 2004 and 2005. An article by Jean-Marie Henckaerts on the rationale and methodology behind the original study was published in the International Review of the Red Cross (No. 857, p. 175) and is available from the ICRC's website.
Volume 1 is a comprehensive analysis of the customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable in international and non-international armed conflicts. Volume 2 contains, for each aspect of international humanitarian law, a summary of the relevant treaty law and relevant state practice including legislation, military manuals, case law and official statements, and practice of international organisations, conferences and judicial and quasi-judicial bodies.
Since its publication, Volume 1 of the study has made a significant contribution to an on-going discussion on customary IHL, and the collection of state practice in Volume 2 has proven to be an invaluable resource to academics, military advisors and other specialists involved in the practical application of the laws of armed conflict around the world. In 2007, the ICRC teamed up with the British Red Cross to update Volume 2 in order to continue providing users with a view into current State practice.
A team of researchers consisting of Dr Michael Carrel (team leader), Ms Valentina Falco and Ms Vanessa Holzer is based at the Lauterpacht Centre and are continuing to work on the update of Volume 2.
New! Online Database
Volume 1 and the newly updated Volume 2 have just been launched in the form of an online database. The database is offered free of charge to all interested users, such as government and military lawyers, NGOs and academics, and updated regularly. The August 2010 update contains practice from the United Nations and from international and mixed judicial and quasi-judicial bodies up until the end of 2007. Subsequent updates will also include material from national sources of practice, as well as practice from more recent years.
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