Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the Regulation of Armed Conflict

by Tanisha M. Fazal

Overview

In Wars of Law, Tanisha M. Fazal assesses the unintended consequences of the proliferation of the laws of war for the commencement, conduct, and conclusion of wars over the course of the past one hundred fifty years.

Fazal outlines three main arguments: early laws of war favored belligerents, but more recent additions have constrained them; this shift may be attributable to a growing divide between lawmakers and those who must comply with international humanitarian law; and lawmakers have been consistently inattentive to how rebel groups might receive these laws. By using the laws of war strategically, Fazal suggests, belligerents in both interstate and civil wars relate those laws to their big-picture goals.

Why have states stopped issuing formal declarations of war? Why have states stopped concluding formal peace treaties? Why are civil wars especially likely to end in peace treaties today? In addressing such questions, Fazal provides a lively and intriguing account of the implications of the laws of war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501719813
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tanisha M. Fazal is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of State Death, winner of the Best Book Award of the APSA Conflict Processes Section.

Table of Contents

Declaring War and Peace
1. The Proliferation and Codification of the Laws of War
2. International Recognition, Compliance Costs, and the Formalities of War
3. Declarations of War in Interstate War
4. Compliance with the Laws of War in Interstate War
5. Peace Treaties in Interstate War
6. Declarations of Independence in Civil Wars
7. Secessionism and Civilian Targeting
8. Peace Treaties in Civil War
Evasion, Engagement, and the Laws of War

What People are Saying About This

David Armitage

In this profound, provocative book, Tanisha Fazal reveals the unintended consequences of trying to tame war through law. Her distinctive blend of historical narrative and quantitative analysis explodes many myths about peace and war, statehood and secession, and cements her reputation as one of our subtlest scholars of international affairs.

Paul Huth

Wars of Law has several interesting and perhaps unexpected consequences for how combatants resort to war and conduct war and will be important to both academics working in the field and to policymakers. Fazal's work will be recognized as a valuable contribution to academic work and pushes the analysis both theoretically and empirically in new directions relative to important other recent books in this area.

Page Fortna

Why have states stopped declaring war? Why do they so rarely even refer to their wars as wars? Why have rebel groups become less likely to declare independence but more likely to declare that they will abide by the laws of war? Wars of Law addresses these and other puzzling trends in the use and disuse of international laws of war by states and non-state actors that few had even noticed before, let alone explained systematically. Encompassing an ambitious empirical sweep that covers both civil and interstate wars over two centuries, and employing a multitude of research methods, including text analysis, case studies informed by carefully done archival research and interviews, and quantitative analysis of newly collected data, Fazal demonstrates convincingly that these shifts are unintended consequences of the development of international humanitarian law. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, this book will be an important read for anyone interested in international norms and law, historical change in international relations, or the strategies of belligerents at war.

Editorial Reviews

A landmark work on international politics and the law of armed conflicts, Wars of Law belongs on the bookshelf beside such major works as Michael Walzer's Just and Unjust Wars, David Kennedy's Of War and Law, James Morrow's Order Within Anarchy, and Sandesh Sivakumaran's The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict. Wars of Law marks an important departure from previous understandings of how warring parties follow or do not follow rules by highlighting the growing divide between law-makers and law-takers. This book stands as a good guideline for our future course of action.

Ethics & International Affairs

Intriguing.... Skillfully blends quantitative and qualitative methods to produce something genuinely original.

Foreign Affairs

You know what states rarely do nowadays? Issue formal declarations of war. You know why? Of course you don’t, because you’re not Tanisha Fazal, who knows more about the laws of war than you do. So you should read her book.

The Washington Post

"[Fazal] brings this analysis to bear on contemporary IHL [International Humanitarian Law] policy issues and vexing questions, such as those about autonomous weapons, cyberwar, and rebel behavior in civil conflicts. Highly recommended for university libraries and collections specializing in international law and politics, security, peace and conflict studies, and defense policy."

Choice

"Wars of Law has several interesting and perhaps unexpected consequences for how combatants resort to war and conduct war and will be important to both academics working in the field and to policymakers. Fazal's work will be recognized as a valuable contribution to academic work and pushes the analysis both theoretically and empirically in new directions relative to important other recent books in this area."

Paul Huth

"Why have states stopped declaring war?Why do they so rarely even refer to their wars as wars? Why have rebel groups become less likely to declare independence but more likely to declare that they will abide by the laws of war?Wars of Law addresses these and other puzzling trends in the use and disuse of international laws of war by states and non-state actors that few had even noticed before, let alone explained systematically. Encompassing an ambitious empirical sweep that covers both civil and interstate wars over two centuries, and employing a multitude of research methods, including text analysis, case studies informed by carefully done archival research and interviews, and quantitative analysis of newly collected data, Fazal demonstrates convincingly that these shifts are unintended consequences of the development of international humanitarian law. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, this book will be an important read for anyone interested in international norms and law, historical change in international relations, or the strategies of belligerents at war."

Page Fortna

"In this profound, provocative book, Tanisha Fazal reveals the unintended consequences of trying to tame war through law. Her distinctive blend of historical narrative and quantitative analysis explodes many myths about peace and war, statehood and secession, and cements her reputation as one of our subtlest scholars of international affairs."

David Armitage

This study adds much valuable material to the literature on international humanitarian law and on the efficacy of jus ad bellum and jus in bello, particularly in its exploration of whether, and why, states follow the formalities when it comes to armed conflict. Fazal's overview, analysis, and synthesis of the existing literature and quantitative databases on these questions will be immensely useful to students and scholars in this area.

H-War

A landmark work on international politics and the law of armed conflicts, Wars of Law belongs on the bookshelf beside such major works as Michael Walzer's Just and Unjust Wars, David Kennedy's Of War and Law, James Morrow's Order Within Anarchy, and Sandesh Sivakumaran's The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict. Wars of Law marks an important departure from previous understandings of how warring parties follow or do not follow rules by highlighting the growing divide between law-makers and law-takers. This book stands as a good guideline for our future course of action.

-- "Ethics & International Affairs"

Fazal brings this analysis to bear on contemporary IHL (International Humanitarian Law) policy issues and vexing questions, such as those about autonomous weapons, cyberwar, and rebel behavior in civil conflicts. Highly recommended for university libraries and collections specializing in international law and politics, security, peace and conflict studies, and defense policy.

-- "Choice"

Intriguing.... Skillfully blends quantitative and qualitative methods to produce something genuinely original.

-- "Foreign Affairs"

This study adds much valuable material to the literature on international humanitarian law and on the efficacy of jus ad bellum and jus in bello, particularly in its exploration of whether, and why, states follow the formalities when it comes to armed conflict. Fazal's overview, analysis, and synthesis of the existing literature and quantitative databases on these questions will be immensely useful to students and scholars in this area.

-- "H-War"

You know what states rarely do nowadays? Issue formal declarations of war. You know why? Of course you don't, because you're not Tanisha Fazal, who knows more about the laws of war than you do. So you should read her book.

-- "The Washington Post"

From the Publisher