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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law [MPEPIL]

Combatants

Marco Sassòli

Content type:
Encyclopedia entries
Product:
Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law [MPIL]

Module:
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law [MPEPIL]
Article last updated:
September 2015

From: Oxford Public International Law (http://opil.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 22 January 2025

Subject(s):
Armed conflict, international — Armed forces — Combatants — Geneva Conventions 1949 — Prisoners of war

Published under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law under the direction of Professor Anne Peters (2021–) and Professor Rüdiger Wolfrum (2004–2020). 

1 The concept of combatants is central to the protective system of international humanitarian law (Humanitarian Law, International) of international armed conflicts (Armed Conflict, International). One of the defining characteristics of the modern State is its monopoly of the legitimate use of force (see Weber). Only State agents are authorized to deploy force, under certain circumstances, within the State and beyond its borders. As such, historically, combatant status has been attributed to members of the regular armed forces of a State, who manifest the State’s...
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