Rethinking nationality in international humanitarian law

Nationality has been central to law's understanding of membership. Moreover, the formal legal relationship between the individual and the state is that of citizenship - or nationality. However, as this chapter argues, various forces in the international context, including globalisation and the contrasting phenomena of fragmentation, express tensions besetting traditional notions of state membership in an international framework.

This chapter begins by looking at some of the issues underpinning the larger question of the role of nationality in humanitarian law. It then explores those questions in the context of the former Yugoslavia and in particular through the judgment of the War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the case of Tadic. It argues that nationality should not necessarily be a determinative factor when applying humanitarian law.