Discussion on the Law of Armed Conflict

The law of armed conflict is the branch of international law that establishes what may and may not be done in war or what is known more broadly as armed conflict. These laws function to balance the necessity of employing combat power to defeat an enemy with the humanitarian goal of minimizing the human suffering of civilians as well as combatants who are no longer taking part in hostilities, such as prisoners of war.  This law is both customary and treaty-based, to include oft-cited the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols.  This law is the foundation for imposing accountability for “war crimes”, and over time, the international community has established specialized courts to hold perpetrators of crimes under international law to account, such as the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.  These efforts evolved into the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which recorded its first conviction in March 2012 against Thomas Lubanga, the leader of an armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Most States, including the United States, may also use their domestic criminal courts to pursue their own prosecutions of perpetrators of war crimes and other crimes under international law.  Geoffrey Corn will lead a discussion on the law of armed conflict and how it applies to the Hamas attack on Israel that began on October 7^th and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza. 

Geoffrey S. Corn is the George R. Killam Jr. Chair of Criminal Law and Director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech University. Professor Corn came to Texas Tech University School of Law from South Texas College of Law Houston, where he was the Gary A. Kuiper Distinguished Professor of National Security. Prior to joining the South Texas College of Law Houston faculty in 2005, Professor Corn served in the U.S. Army for 21 years as an officer and a final year as a civilian legal advisor, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Professor Corn’s teaching and scholarship focus on the law of armed conflict, national security law, criminal law and procedure, and prosecutorial ethics. He has appeared as an expert witness at the Military Commission in Guantanamo, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and in federal court.

He is co-author of Criminal Law: Classroom to Courtroom (forthcoming), The Law of Armed Conflict: An Operational Perspective, The Laws of War and the War on Terror, National Security Law and the Constitution, National Security Law and Policy: a Student Treatise, The Law in War: A Concise Overview, and Principles of Counter-Terrorism Law.

His Army career included service as the Army’s senior law of war expert advisor, tactical intelligence officer in Panama; supervisory defense counsel for the Western United States; Chief of International Law for US Army Europe; Professor of International and National Security Law at the US Army Judge Advocate General’s School; and Chief Prosecutor for the 101st Airborne Division. He earned his B.A. from Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY, his J.D. with highest honors from George Washington University, and his LLM as a distinguished graduate from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School. He is also a distinguished military graduate of the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School and a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff Course.