Fourth Geneva Convention for Civilians

Gilad Ben-Nun is Senior Researcher at Leipzig University’s Centre for Area Studies, where he teaches Global Studies and the History of International Law. Previously, he was Marie Curie Individual Fellow at the International Law Department of Verona University, a Ford Foundation Research Fellow at UNIDIR and a UN Middle East Program Officer. He has published the book Seeking Asylum in Israel: Refugees and the History of Migration Law (I.B.Tauris, 2017) which was nominated for the 2017 US National Jewish book award.

• Introduction: ‘A Treaty after Trauma’Chapter 1: Background: Significant Historical Omissions in GC-IV’s Current LiteraturePART 1: PROTECTION FOR ALL: THE MAKING OF COMMON ARTICLE 3Chapter 2: Initial Ideas for Civilian Protection: The Dilemma of State Consent Chapter 3: Stockholm’s Universalist Revolution: Protections to all CiviliansChapter 4: The Final Act: The Soviets Come on Board – Geneva 1949PART 2: THE INHERENT ILLEGITIMACY OF OCCUPATION: ARTICLES 49 & 68Chapter 5: Conquest Contested: Georg Cohn, Carl Schmitt and Non-RecognitionChapter 6: Cohn’s Drafting of the Prohibition on Settlements – Article 49 paragraph 6 Chapter 7: Georg Cohn’s Crusade Against the Death Penalty -Art. 68PART 3: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NON-APPLICABILITYChapter 8: Arbitration, Judicial Settlement and the ICJ’s roles vis-à-vis GC-IVChapter 9: Non-Application from Colonialism to Terrorism: 1950s-2000s ConclusionAppendix GC-IV’s French 1st Draft Adopted in Geneva – April 1947NotesGlossaryBibliography and Sources

A fascinating account, well documented and richly supplemented by background materials, of the drafting process of key provisions that revolutionized the protection of civilians. The author manages to bring to life the protagonists responsible for those important innovations, describe their motivations and explain their strategy.