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15 - Animals in Sea Warfare

from Part III - The Protection of Animals in Specific Situations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2022

Anne Peters
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg
Jérôme de Hemptinne
Affiliation:
Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
Robert Kolb
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
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Summary

This chapter analyses the treatment of animals in sea warfare under extant international law and it assesses the adequacy of these norms for the protection of animal welfare. The welfare of marine animals is threatened by warfare in various ways. Individual marine mammals, such as dolphins or sea lions, are trained to take part in hostilities. Other sea life suffers, whether directly or indirectly, the repercussions of hostilities. In the context of prize law, animals could in some cases qualify as contraband goods, susceptible to seizure when on board neutral vessels heading toward enemy ports. It is concluded that the law as it stands today provides neither optimal protection for animals considered as a constitutive part of the marine environment nor for animals in themselves considered as sentient beings. The chapter formulates recommendations for the progressive development of the law, including the creation of a sui generis status for sentient animals, the regulation of military sonars and the establishment of protected marine zones where no combat activities whatsoever should take place.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Select Bibliography

Doswald-Beck, Louise (ed.), San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995).Google Scholar
Ma, Jinxing and Sun, Shiyan, ‘Restrictions on the Use of Force at Sea: An Environmental Protection Perspective’, International Review of the Red Cross 98 (2016), 515–41.Google Scholar
Roscini, Marco, ‘Animals and the Law of Armed Conflict’, Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 47 (2017), 3567.Google Scholar
White, Thomas I., In Defense of Dolphins (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing 2007).Google Scholar

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