Cluster Munitions and International Law : Disarmament With a Human Face?

For over sixty years, cluster munitions have caused civilian deaths and injury because of the wide area over which they have an effect, their relative inaccuracy and because of the post-conflict legacy of unexploded sub-munitions.

This book offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary legal analysis of restraints and prohibitions, on the use of cluster munitions under international humanitarian law, human rights law, and international criminal law, as well as the recently adopted Convention on Cluster Munitions. The book analyses of the case law on cluster munitions use before the Ethiopia and Eritrea Claims Commission and the ICTY, as well as recent policy statements from states, organizations and civil societies. The book goes on to offer an in-depth substantive and procedural analysis of the negotiations which led to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), in part based on this author’s experiences as an adviser to Cluster Munition Coalition-Austria.

This book offers a comprehensive argument for why pre-existing international law on cluster munitions was inadequate to deal with the full scope of humanitarian consequences associated with their use. The book undertakes an interdisciplinary legal analysis of restraints and prohibitions on the use of cluster munitions under international humanitarian law, human rights law, and international criminal law, as well as in relation to the recently adopted Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The book goes on to offer an in-depth substantive and procedural analysis of the negotiations which led to the 2008 CCM, in part based on the author’s experiences as an adviser to Cluster Munitions Coalition-Austria.

Cluster Munitions and International Law is essential reading for practitioners and scholars of International Law, including International Humanitarian, Human Rights, International Criminal or Disarmament Law and anyone interested in legal and humanitarian perspectives on cluster munitions legislation and policy. It is unique in bringing a practitioner’s perspective to a scholarly work.