This book challenges the traditional understanding of belligerent reprisals as a mechanism aimed at enforcing the laws of armed conflict. By re-instating reciprocity at the core of belligerent reprisals, it construes them as tools designed to re-calibrate the legal relationship between parties to armed conflict and pursue the belligerents' equality of rights and obligations in both a formal and a substantive sense. It combines an inquiry into the conceptual issues surrounding the notion of belligerent reprisals, with an analysis of State and international practice on their purpose and function. Encompassing international and non-international armed conflicts, it provides a first comprehensive account of the role of reprisals in governing legal interaction during wartime, and offers new grounds to address questions on their applicability, lawfulness, regulation, and desirability. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

This book aligns the legal theory of belligerent reprisals with the dynamics that govern retaliation during armed conflict.

About the Author
Francesco Romani is a Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, where he coordinates the IHL Expert Pool. He is also Visiting Professor on international responsibility and litigation at the Law Faculty of Lille Catholic University and holds a Ph.D. in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. His research interests include international humanitarian law, human rights and cultural heritage law.


Book Information
ISBN 9781108831840
Author Francesco Romani
Format Hardback
Page Count 370
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press