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The foundations of international humanitarian law in Islamic tradition

Version 2 2024-06-18, 07:20
Version 1 2018-03-02, 11:21
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-18, 07:20 authored by SA Whyte
Recent debates regarding Islam’s status in world politics has limited the opportunity for Muslims to speak about Islam’s ethical position on war and peace. Within this context, Islam has been labelled as a religion that is incapable of adhering to International norms of armed conflict, specifically those relating to International Humanitarian law (IHL). This paper will therefore seek to define and clarify the Muslim perspective on IHL through a study of Islamic jurisprudence and historical occurrences of war and peace in Islam. Within this scope, the paper aims to critically examine how early Islamic jurisprudence guided state practices of Muslim empires and military commanders under the traditional corpus of Islamic International law (al-siyar). It will contrast these methods and practices with recent commentary aimed at underselling Islam’s position on the development of IHL and its key apparatus, the Geneva Conventions.1 By doing so, the paper will explain some of the widely held misconceptions associated with Islamic approaches to armed conflict, namely, the perceived absence of a legal tradition vis-à-vis Western European notions of just war theory.

History

Journal

Journal of Islamic State Practices in International Law

Volume

10

Season

2014

Article number

1

Pagination

7-42

Location

Manchester, Eng.

ISSN

1742-4941

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

Contributors to JISPIL are requested to provide formal written Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright before publication of the Work. The signed Consent ensures that JISPIL has the Author's permission to publish the relevant Contribution. The signed Transfer entitles JISPIL on behalf of the Author to protect the Contribution against unauthorised use and to authorise dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microfilm editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources such as abstracting and indexing services including databases.

Issue

1

Publisher

ElectronicPublications.org Ltd

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