Book Review - "The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law " by Dieter Fleck (ed), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, Pp. Xvii-770. ISBN 978-0-19-923250-5)

In the Handbook’s Introduction, Dieter Fleck mentions that the first edition, published in German in 1994[1], was built upon the German Armed Forces’s (Bundeswehr) Manual of international humanitarian law (IHL), an account of Germany’s long-standing involvement in the implementation of IHL[2]. Yet the present edition, ‘no longer connected to a single national manual, […] aims at offering a best practice manual to assist scholars and practitioners worldwide’ (p. xiv).Dr. Fleck draws a contrasted picture of the current implementation of IHL around the world. He highlights, among the recent achievements in this field, the fact that ‘the interrelationship between humanitarian law and the protection of human rights in armed conflicts is largely accepted and better understood today than ever before’. He also observes that : ‘A progressive development of international criminal law has led to increased jurisprudence on war crimes and crimes against humanity by national courts, international ad hoc tribunals, and finally to the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC)...