Book review: Marco Sassòli, International Humanitarian Law: Rules, Controversies, and Solutions to Problems Arising in Warfare, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham: 2019, pp. 720

Abstract

Book review of Marco Sassòli, International Humanitarian Law: Rules, Controversies, and Solutions to Problems Arising in Warfare, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham: 2019, pp. 720.

Anyone who is a researcher or a teacher in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has had the opportunity to read some of Marco Sassòli’s works. One of his best-known publications – titled How Does Law Protect in War. Cases, Documents and Teaching Materials on Contemporary Practice in International Humanitarian Law (ICRC, English editions – 1999, 2005, 2011; French editions in 2003 and 2012) – was originally co-authored with Antoine A. Bouvier, and then jointly with Anne Quintin (from the third edition) and Julia Grignon (the online platform). This casebook, which has also been available online since 2014 (https://casebook.icrc.org) is an extremely useful resource tool, systematically updated and available in several language versions (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish). However, despite the fact that How Does Law Protect in War contains some introductory remarks to each of the chapters, which explain basic notions or rules of IHL, the publication is still only a casebook – not a handbook of IHL. Since it lacks detailed analyses, many problems are just remarked upon, with suggestions for further readings, and the explanations are very limited and rudimentary, thus leaving a reader with a feeling of wanting more.

Keywords: international humanitarian law, Sassoli, book review, IHL

JEL Classification: K33