Introduction

Hilaire was a prolific writer. Although he died at the early age of forty-six while on a lecturing visit to Pakistan in April 2000, he had written or co-written ten books in the areas of international humanitarian law, collective security law, legal theory and even planning law. His output in terms of journal publications was similarly impressive with, for example, seminal articles in the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, La Revue de Droit Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre, the International Review of the Red Cross, International Relations,International Peacekeeping, the Journal of Armed Conflict Law and its successor the Journal of Conflict and Security Law. Quite often his calling as a minister in the Church of England was reflected in his work. This, by no means complete, catalogue of Hilaire's writings is sufficient to show that he covered the whole spectrum of international law relating to armed conflict from the pre-conflict stage when the issues include those of arms control, disarmament and conflict prevention, through the outbreak of armed conflict and discussion of the legality of resort to force (the jus ad bellum), to the coverage of the conduct of military operations and the protection of non-combatants by international humanitarian law (the jus in bello). He also covered collective security mechanisms that are applicable throughout these different stages.