Modern Weapons and the Law of Armed Conflict

This chapter highlights how and why weapons are specifically regulated by the law of armed conflict, and how the United States currently applies this law to ensure the legality of the weapons it fields. The chapter links today’s complex legal framework to the history of efforts to regulate permissible weapons and munitions. The authors then focus on outlining the framework of “the law of weaponry” in the context of the principles undergirding the regulation of the means of warfare. The chapter also discusses the process for determining whether a weapon is lawful and allowed in military operations, and concludes that, notwithstanding the claims of some critics, weapons law is sufficiently robust and pliable to regulate current and emerging means of war.