The preconditions of a NIAC

Yoram Dinstein

doi:10.1017/CBO9781107279391.003

2 - The preconditions of a NIAC

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014

Yoram Dinstein

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Yoram Dinstein: Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University

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NIACs as armed conflicts

As we shall see (infra 118), the definition of NIACs appearing in AP/II establishes a rather high threshold. Yet, all NIACs are covered by the chapeau of Common Article 3 (infra 409), which adverts tout court to an ‘armed conflict not of an international character’. This laconic language attests to the existence of the two components of (i) an armed conflict that is (ii) not of an international character. But, by themselves – even when combined – the two rudimentary ingredients do not cobble together a viable legal construct of a NIAC.

While a concrete determination as to whether a NIAC satisfies the demands of Common Article 3 has to be made ‘on a case-by-case basis’, it is of the utmost importance to get a fix on the crossover point prior to which no NIAC can be recognized in esse. The postulate of an armed conflict is that hostilities are raging between two (or more) opposing sides (cf. infra 93 about parties to the conflict). We have already dwelt (supra 34–5) on the nature of ‘hostilities’. The main challenge is to differentiate veritable NIAC hostilities from internal disturbances and IACs at both the lower and the upper ends of violence. In the words of the 2004 British Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, there is ‘a spectrum of violence ranging from internal disturbances’ to NIACs and IACs: each band of that spectrum is subject to another legal regime.

Type: Chapter
Information: Non-International Armed Conflicts in International Law , pp. 20 - 36

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107279391.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2014

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