The function of the laws of war in peacetime

Several provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and of Protocol I of 1977 stipulate, expressly or implicitly, that the respective Contracting Power must implement them as soon as said instruments enter into force, that is already in peacetime. This is the case, in particular, of the articles common to the four Geneva Conventions concerning the widest possible dissemination of the text of the Conventions and the obligation of the Contracting Parties to communicate to one another the official translations of the Conventions, as well as the laws and regulations they adopt to ensure the application thereof.