Law · Boston College
Laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC), also known as International humanitarian law (IHL), constitutes a distinct branch of public international law that regulates the conduct of hostilities in situations of armed conflict. IHL is characterized by an inherent normative tension: it seeks to reconcile military necessitythe prerogative of parties to conduct military operations with humanitarian considerations, notably the protection of civilians, civilian objects, and other specially protected persons and entities. This tension lies at the heart of the IHL framework and permeates its entire corpus, most
