Enforcing the Law

• Author: John F. Murphy
• Position: Professor of Law at Villanova University School of Law
• Pages: 311-317

XVII

Enforcing the Law

John F. Murphy1

Thefocus of this panel, as well as that of most panels in this conference, is on

the jus in bello, the law regulating the way armed force is applied. It is per-

haps worth noting parenthetically, however, that participants at the Dumbarton

Oaks and San Francisco conferences determined that, unlike the Covenant of the

League of Nations, the United Nations Charter should outlaw war.2As the major

hostilities phase of the conflict in Iraq dramatically demonstrates, we are along

way from achieving the goal of the founders of the United Nations. Indeed, it is

highly unlikely that we shall ever reach the goal ofoutlawing armed conflict. None-

theless, as recent events also demonstrate, there is an overriding need for people of

good will to recommit themselves to the pursuit of this goal.

During this conference most of the discussion and debate has revolved around

four international armed conflicts of the 1990s and the early 2000s: the Gulf War,

Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. But it is important to remember that international

armed conflict is not the primary kind of armed conflict today, but rather it is in-

ternal or civil wars. In the main, these wars are being fought with no concern for the

jus in bello and are largely ignored by the great powers. This is especially the case in

Africa. Amajor reason for the failure to deal effectively with these wars is lack of

political will. But it appears clear as well that the jus in bello applicable to internal

wars—Common Article 3of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocol II—is

inadequate; yet efforts to improve this law are strongly resisted.