Winner of the 2022 Francis Lieber Prize

This book explores how States and armed groups deprive us of liberty in armed conflict. Intriguing insights into original field records of internal laws and first-hand testimonies by fighters and humanitarians reveal hidden patterns of belligerents’ controversial behaviours in relation to three complex aspects of security detention in non-international armed conflict that remain unsettled in international law – permissible grounds, procedural guarantees, and transfer standards. As you flip through the pages of this fascinating book, you will gain a new understanding of where the boundary of unlawful confinement lies between local and international law and why we need a new international legal framework to protect us from arbitrariness in the warring parties’ decision to detain.

This book has won the 2022 Francis Lieber prize, awarded at ASIL, for the best monograph published on the law of armed conflict.