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date: 25 January 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter examines the general features and principles of the law of occupation in international armed conflict. It considers some of the key contemporary challenges to the implementation of the law of occupation and addresses selected issues that have direct impact on the population living in a territory subject to the effective control of a foreign army. It explains that this law is aimed at the maintenance of the sovereign rights of the ousted government until belligerents agree upon the conditions for its return. This chapter also discusses the issue of the question of transformative occupation and the relationship between the law of occupation and human rights law with regard to the use of force in occupied territory.

Keywords: law of occupation, armed conflict, foreign army, sovereign rights, occupied territory, human rights law, use of force

Philip Spoerri

Philip Spoerri is Director for International Law and Cooperation at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

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