The Law of Occupation and the Recent Practice of States

Abstract One consequence of the increased reliance by States on the use of military force and the inability of the UN Charter system to prevent and limit such uses has been the forcible occupation of territories. The focus of this dissertation is the analysis of the phenomenon of the occupation of enemy territory from an international law perspective. Under international law, a territory is considered occupied when, as a consequence of military victory, that territory is placed under the authority of a foreign and hostile army in the course of an international armed conflict. A territory is also considered occupied when the hostile army remains in that territory even after the hostilities are over without the consent of the legitimate sovereign over that territory. The first part of the dissertation discusses the content and role of what is generally referred to as the law of occupation, which include, the Hague Regulations, and the whole of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV, and discuss what parts of contemporary international law, in addition to international humanitarian law, apply to a situation of occupation. The second part of this dissertation examines the content, role and effectiveness of the law applicable to an occupation in light of two major cases: the occupation of Iraq (2003-2005) and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza that began in 1967.