Negotiating Civil War
The Politics of International Regime Design

A theoretically-informed, critical account of the making of the international legal rules governing civil war.

Henry Lovat (Author)

9781108497275, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 July 2020

400 pages
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.7 cm, 0.73 kg

'In this thoughtful, original study, Henry Lovat breaks new analytical ground, combining lenses from history, international law, and international relations theories to cast new light on how civil wars came to be regulated by the 1949 Geneva Conventions, their 1977 Additional Protocols, and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.' Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law, Yale University, Legal Adviser, US Department of State (2009-13); Assistant US Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights and Labor (1998-2001)

Civil war has been a fact of political life throughout recorded history. However, unlike inter-state wars, international law has not traditionally regulated such conflicts. How then can we explain the post-1945 emergence and evolution of international treaty rules regulating the conduct of internal armed conflict: the 'Civil War Regime'? Negotiating Civil War combines insights derived from Realist, Rationalist, Liberal, and Constructivist approaches to International Relations to answer this question, revisiting the negotiation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1977 Additional Protocols, and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. This study provides a rigorous, critical account of the making of the Civil War Regime. Sophisticated and persuasive, it illustrates the complex interplay of material, ideational, social, and strategic factors in shaping these rules with important lessons for the making and unmaking of international law in a rapidly shifting international political, economic, and security environment.

Introduction
1. Theorising the Civil War Regime
2. Historical precursors and regime origins
3. Negotiating Common Article 3 (1949)
4. The Additional Protocols of 1977
5. War crimes and internal armed conflict in the Rome Statute (1998)
6. Explaining the Civil War Regime
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Public international law [LBB], Politics & government [JP], English Civil War [HBWE]