Law of War
Autumn 2012 Prof.
M.H.Hoeflich
Syllabus
The course will meet on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.
Generally, Monday classes will be a lecture and Tuesday classes will be
discussion. There will be a topic assigned for each discussion. The basic text
for the course is Gary D. Solis, The Law
of Armed Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pr., 2010). Lt. Col.
Solis (ret.) taught the law of armed conflict at West Point for many years and
is a leading authority in the field. In addition to the assigned readings in
Solis you will also be required to read either Daniel Klaidman, Kill or Capture (Boston: Houghton,
Mifflin, 2012) or David E. Sanger, Confront
and Conceal (N.Y.: Crown, 2012). In addition to these books there will be a
number of assigned articles for you to read. Links to these will be posted on
the class blog [I will give details on the blog during the first class]. In
addition to our regular class meetings we will have several lunch meetings with
visitors including General M.G. Tate, Deputy Army Judge Advocate General,
Federal District Judge [and former U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas
Eric Melgren. Our visitors will talk about the practice of LOW and will also
talk about employment opportunities in the field.
There will
not be an examination in this course. Instead each student will be responsible
for writing two short papers [15-20 pages each] on two of the discussion topics
[35% each]. In addition, each student will be required to write a short review
of either Klaidman or Sanger [15%]. Twenty percent of the final grade will be
for class participation.
Assigned Readings in Solis:
Week Pages Discussion
Topic
1
1-72 Combatant’s
Privilege
2
73-145 Efficacy
of Treaties& Conventions
3
149-185 Classification
of Armed Conflicts
4
186-249 Private
Contractors & Lawful Combatant Status
5
250-300 Hezbollah,
Israel & the Four Core Principles
6
301-338 War
Crimes
7
341-380 Nuremberg
8
381-435 Command
Responsibility
9
436-489 Perfidy
v. Ruses of War
10
490-555 U.S.
Policy & Torture
11
556-576 ROE
& Non-State Combatants
12
577-621 Cyber
Warfare
