Sequences of Military Necessity for the Jus in Bello

Abstract

This chapter considers several discrete snapshots or “sequences” in the life of military necessity—as it has come to be understood within the laws of the jus in bello. Commencing with its relationship with self-preservation under the laws of war and peace, the chapter proceeds to examine the idea of “necessity” of self-defense within the laws of the jus ad bellum; it then turns to “military necessity” as invoked in the Lieber Code, the 1907 Hague Regulations, Additional Protocol I of 1977 and the 1954 Hague Convention, the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law as well as the advisory jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice. Consideration is given, too, to “necessity” as it features within the law of State responsibility, in order to more fully understand the function, status and standing of “military necessity” more generally within the jus in bello.