The Convention on Cluster Munitions: A Commentary was published just in advance of the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, held in Vientiane, Laos, on 8 –12 November 2010. The treaty, which bans the production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of all cluster munitions, entered into force and became binding international law on 1 August 2010. As of early November, 45 States had adhered to the treaty and a further 63 were signatories.
The commentary, which is part of the OUP series “Oxford Commentaries on International Law”, was edited by two international lawyers, Gro Nystuen and Stuart Casey-Maslen; the latter is a senior researcher at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, a joint centre of the Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva. As part of preparations it hosted three meetings which brought together government and non-governmental experts involved in the negotiation of the Convention to review drafts of the commentary prior to publication.
The Commentary on the Convention on Cluster Munitions is a detailed assessment of the negotiation, content, and implications of the Convention – the latest international treaty to ban a conventional weapon. It offers systematic analysis of each article of the Convention, drawing on the negotiating history. The introduction provides an in-depth overview of the development and use of cluster munitions and their legal regulation. Germany dropped cluster munitions during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 and both Axis and Allied forces used large numbers of the weapons during the Second World War. There was massive use of cluster munitions during the war in South East Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, and more recent use in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon.
Issues of particular importance addressed by the Commentary include interoperability – the ability of forces of States or international organisations to operate jointly in the performance of an operation. This issue has particular impact on the legal obligations of, and military relationship between, the armed forces of two or more States operating in a military alliance, such as within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
The Commentary is intended for scholars and students of international humanitarian law; practitioners and NGO and government legal advisors involved in the interpretation and application of international humanitarian law; and army legal advisors. The Commentary was formally presented to States in Vientiane on 10 November 2010.
Stuart Maslen, Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, jointly founded and managed by the Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva, is an international lawyer specialising in the regulation of conventional weaponry, especially landmines and cluster munitions.
Gro Nystuen is Associate Professor of International Humanitarian Law at the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Defense Staff University College.
This article originally appeared in Globe No. 7, Spring 2011 [PDF]. Globe is published twice a year and is an insight into our professors’ and experts’ analyses of major world issues, our research projects, our events, our Alumni and more.