The first book of its kind in the field of International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

The authors' aim to show that international humanitarian law is actually being applied in contemporary practice and that it guides those seeking answers to the legal problems arising from armed conflicts.

PART I
presents IHL carefully and systematically. This Part of the book provides an outline of important and non-controversial elements on each topic through Introductory Texts. In addition, readers are enabled and encouraged to expand their knowledge on a given subject as they are directed to references to the pertinent parts of Cases and Documents on that issue that are reproduced in Part III. For each topic, references to articles from the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols and references to the Rules of the ICRC Study on Customary IHL are also provided. Finally, a selected bibliography facilitates further study and deeper understanding of each topic.

PART II
provides advice and recommendations on how to teach IHL and a series of teaching outlines, which may be useful for university professors who wish to introduce a course on IHL. The suggested teaching outlines are primarily addressed to law faculties, but they also target faculties of journalism and political science. This Part ends with eleven course outlines written by experts in IHL.

PART III
is the main body of the present book. In this Part, the reader can find all the Cases and Documents in chronological and geographical order. The nature of each Case or Document varies according to the topic: the student or scholar will thus find national and international tribunal judgements, Security Council resolutions, extracts from documents, or press releases. Each Case and Document has been carefully edited according to the specific topic(s) of International Humanitarian Law referred to in Part I. The originality of this section lies in the second part of each case, entitled "Discussion", where the reader is asked questions that raise issues in relation to the case at hand.

UPDATE OF THE FIRST EDITION
How does law protect in war? was first published in English in 1999; an updated French version appeared in 2003. This 2nd English edition has incorporated the significant revisions and updates of the French edition, which included some 40 new Cases and Documents, revised Introductory Texts and considerable improvements to the section on Teaching International Humanitarian Law. A further 30 Cases and Documents reflecting the most recent practice have been added in this new English edition. Furthermore, some Introductory Texts have been added, others revised.