The Dilemma of Determining a Criterion for Benchmarking Armed Conflicts in Public International law (A Content Analysis(

Abstract

The paper provide an indepth analysis of the problem of lack of specific and precise criteria for determining and categorising the types of armed conflicts as well as the intervention of international organizations in resolving the internal armed conflict and the containment of its effects which may lead to a change in the legal description of the armed conflict from being being a domestic to an international armed conflict and vice versa. Adopting qualitative methodology the paper tries to achieve three important objectives; to highlight the types of the armed conflicts, to develop a specific standard of determining the nature of the armed conflicts and to highlight the role of the international organizations in providing different legal descriptions of the armed conflicts. To achieve these objectives this paper is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the definition of armed conflicts in which it analyzed and discussed two issues: the requirement for determining and operationalizing the concept of armed conflicts within international law and the causes and nature of armed conflicts. the second section, deals with the criteria adopted in determining the nature of the armed conflicts which is view from two parlances. The first discusses the international legal personal standard, while the other searches the criterion of the international character. The final section deals with the role of the international organizations in determining the nature of armed conflicts. This section also analyzed two important issues in which the first one discusses the role of the United Nations Organization, while the other discusses the role of the other international organ.