The Laws of Yesterday’s Wars: Volume 4: From Mesopotamia to West Africa

How international is international humanitarian law? The Laws of Yesterday’s Wars 4: From Mesopotamia to Somalia, together with its companion volumes, attempts to answer that question. It offers a culture-by-culture account of various unique restrictions placed on warfare over time. Containing essays by a range of laws of war academics and practitioners, it approaches the laws of yesterday’s wars from a wide cross-section of history and culture, seeking to find any common ground and to demonstrate a history of international law outside the usual confines of its ’development’ by Europeans and its later ’contributions.’ This volume includes studies on Egyptian, Jewish and Somali rules of war.

Samuel White, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, where he is the Senior Research Fellow in Peace and Security at the Centre for International Law.