The role of the Martens clause in the development of international humanitarian law in the face of new challenges

Subject Areas : International Legal Research

maysam gharaei ¹ , heibatollah najandimanesh ² , mohammad reza Alipour ³

1 - PhD Student in Public International Law, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Science, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch,Tehran, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of law, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
3 - Assistant Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Science, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2023-07-03 Accepted : 2024-06-19 Published : 2024-09-21

Keywords: Martens clause, customary international law, Laws of humanity, requirements of the public conscience , new automatic weapons,

Abstract :

"The Martens clause" which has its roots in the thoughts of the natural law school and its manifestation in the sources of international humanitarian law, especially in the common article 3, according to the elements contained in this declaration, i.e. "the Laws of humanity and requirements of the public conscience " (opinio juris), today It has a special place in the formation of the rules of customary international law. An impressive part of the rules of humanitarian law are the rules governing the use of tools and methods of war, which according to international humanitarian law, the right of governments to choose and use tools and methods of war is not unlimited, and on the other hand, it is one of the challenges facing the human society that in recent years, human concerns and has created a lot of environment, there is a gap in the rule regarding the production and use of modern automatic war tools, which in this research we are looking for an answer to this question, what is the role of "Martens clause" in limiting the use of this challenge to make the rule. Method: This research has been scrutinized, analyzed and investigated using the analytical-descriptive method based on documentary studies with the tool of data collection. Results: Considering the numerous works affected by the "Martens Clause" and the inclusion of the clause's principles in the preamble of the 2023 Automatic Weapons Convention draft, the results indicate that governments can consider the principles of this declaration as a mechanism for creating rules in customary international law. Why that Until the world community reaches a common goal to create universally binding customary rules, the issue of legal obligation (opinio juris) to the general principles of humanitarian rights must first be formed in the governments' belief.

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