The Law of Targeting

Bill Boothby recently retired as Deputy Director of Legal Services for the Royal Air Force. He served in Germany, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Croatia and in a variety of locations in the United Kingdom. In 2009 he was awarded a Doktor der Rechte degree in international law at the University of Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany and published his associated doctoral thesis with OUP under the title Weapons and the Law of Armed Conflict. He is on the Editorial Board of the UK Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict, and contributed as one of the group of experts to the Harvard Manual on the International Law of Air and Missile Warfare. He is currently engaged as a member of the core group of international law experts preparing a Manual on the International Law of Cyber Warfare. Following retirement from the RAF, he plans to teach international law at a number of Universities and to continue to write and speak on the subject.

• SECTION I: THE LAW OF TARGETING IN CONTEXT ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Historical Evolution of the Law ; 3. Sources of the Law ; 4. Spectrum of Conflict ; SECTION II: GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN THE LAW OF TARGETING ; 5. Fundamental Customary Principles and Customary Rules ; 6. The AP1 Rule of Distinction ; 7. The AP I Requirement to take Precautions in Attack ; 8. The Controversy Over the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities ; 9. The Controversy over Bombardment - What is the Required Degree of Care? ; SECTION III: PARTICULAR PROTECTIONS ; 10. The Protection of the Environment ; 11. Cultural Property ; 12. Objects Entitled to Special Protection ; SECTION IV: WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGIES ; 13. Weapons Law ; 14. Targeting Using Particular Technologies ; SECTION V: SPECIFIC MEDIA ; 15. Naval Warfare ; 16. Air Warfare ; 17. Space Warfare ; 18. Cyber Warfare ; SECTION VI: PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF CONTEMPORARY TARGETING ; 19. The Prosecution of Difficult Targets ; 20. Types of Warfare ; SECTION VI: IMPLEMENTING THE LAW OF TARGETING ; 21. How States Implement the Distinction Principle ; 22. When Things go Wrong ; SECTION VII CONCLUSION ; 23. The changing nature of conflict and the law of targeting

The books structure is clear and logical; each chapter ends with a valuable summary; there is a good index.