In three distinct volumes the editors bring together a distinguished group of contributors whose essays chart the history, practice, and future of international humanitarian law. At a time when the war crimes of recent decades are being examined in the International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and a new International Criminal Court is being created as a permanent venue to try such crimes, the role of international humanitarian law is seminal to the functioning of such attempts to establish a just world order.

The events of September 2001 and the worldwide threat of terrorist attacks, bring into sharper focus questions about the ramifications of unconventional warfare and how prisoners taken in armed conflict short of declared war should be treated. Here again international humanitarian law can provide the guideposts needed to find a just course through difficult times. The intent of these volumes is to help to inform where humanitarian law had its origins, how it has been shaped by world events, and why it can be employed to serve the future.