1 - Introduction

Summary

Starting as a civil uprising calling for liberal reforms in March 2011, the struggle in Syria rapidly deteriorated into a proxy-led armed conflict involving multiple state-sponsored and non-state actors, including foreign militias and local armed groups. The current state of affairs in Syria and the uncertainty regarding its future raise numerous questions for scholars of both international law and politics. The combination of legal and political issues was used in this volume to tackle and evaluate questions of justice within the context of a changing political reality in Syria. This volume contributes uniquely to the scholarship on the Syrian war, raising voices not often heard within this research context from the region and beyond. The volume is divided to three sections: Part I sets the factual and legal framework for the Syrian conflict; Part II focuses on the implications of the conflict for the Syrian neighbourhood; and Part III analyses possible post-conflict scenarios. Together, they address the key themes and questions of the conflicts.